An Undercover Everything
by afarbetterrest
Summary: Annabeth's a spy. Ever since her first day, Luke had been her best friend; helping her with anything she needed. One day, she and Luke are called on an important mission, and after that fateful day, nothing would ever be the same.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So I posted the first two chapters to this story about a month/two months ago or so, but then I deleted them because I was seriously completely out of ideas. Anyway, I'm reposting this because I think I might be able to continue, we'll see :)**

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

I woke up forty-five minutes before my alarm clock was set to go off, but I didn't go back to sleep. I got out of bed and took a shower, made myself bacon and eggs, and drank a glass of milk. I brushed my teeth and went to get changed. What should I wear today? I decided on my Saints jersey and some comfortable jeans. I could basically wear whatever I wanted to work, but I usually dressed pretty casual. After I finished my daily morning routine, I walked about two miles from my apartment before I entered the small, old-fashioned building with the words "Athens Architecture Inc." on a sign fading quickly.

I greeted some co-workers as I walked down the brightly lit hallway with a cup of coffee. I've been working here for three years, and I like to say I've gained a good reputation. I sat down at my desk. Luke wasn't there yet. Luke was my partner, and we worked really well together. Some even called us the best team in the business. Of course, by "some" I mean "almost none," because most people don't even know we exist. And that's a good thing. After all, we can't have random people going around spouting off the names of all the agents in America's best spying agency.

I started going through the papers on my desk. There were blueprints of skyscrapers and museums, like there usually was. I looked at them with interest only, because I knew I wouldn't need them for anything. I sat at my desk and noticed that there were still fifteen minutes until work officially started. I zoned out and began reminiscing about how I ended up here in the first place.

 _-Flashback-_

It was three years ago, when I was 16. I was looking for a summer job in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood I had just moved too, and happened to walk by the "Athens Architecture Inc." building. Although it was worn down, I was attracted to it. I had always loved architecture to begin with, and when I saw this building, I decided to see if I could apply for a summer job there. The lady at the front desk was very uncomfortable when I asked her about work until a door behind her opened and a blond haired boy about my age, maybe a year older, stepped out. He was really handsome and I felt myself blushing when he turned to the front desk lady and said, "Mellie, it's fine. I'll take it from here." Mellie nodded and the boy ushered me into a separate room.

Once the door was closed and locked, the boy asked me to sit down. I nervously complied.

"My name is Luke," he said. "So you're looking for a job here?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Uhh...16," I answered truthfully.

"Oh really? You're only one year younger than me, than," he said, winking.

I blushed furiously, unresponsive.

"Anyway, what makes you want to apply for a job here?" he asked after a brief silence.

"I love architecture," I said enthusiastically, "and I just moved to D.C. so I was kind of looking for a summer job to you know, like have a job and stuff, and then I saw this building and I knew it would be perfect and -"

"Thank you," Luke said, cutting me off. He stood up suddenly, and strained his ears as if he heard something. Suddenly I heard a loud pop and a bullet burst through the door. I jumped back in shock and almost screamed, but Luke's hand was covering my mouth, blocking any noise from coming out. He then made a furtive gesture that I barely noticed, and soon I was out cold.

When I woke up, I realized that I was in a different room, seemingly made of glass. But the glass was opaque. I couldn't see through it. The room was completely empty, except for Luke. Luke was standing in front of me with a stern expression.

"That was just a false alarm," he said.

"Huh?" I asked tiredly.

"That….bullet was just a false alarm."  
"How can a bullet be a false alarm?"

"It just can. And it was." Luke saw I didn't believe him.

"Are the police on their way?" I asked.

"No," he said, "but-"

I didn't let him finish. I got up (I was on a bed) and walked toward the metal door. I was tired of this unwelcoming place, and I was terrified that I was being kidnapped or something.

"I'm leaving, and I'm calling the police," I said, but I soon realized the door was locked. Stupid me. Of course he wouldn't just let me escape. "Let me out," I stated calmly.

"No," Luke said, "but wait, I can explain why. Just give me a chance."  
I looked at him doubtfully, but nodded anyway. I needed to stall to think of a new escape plan.

"But first, I'll need you to swear your secrecy," he continued.

I flinched in shock. "Well, if you're going to kidnap me, I don't see how you would make me promise not to tell your secrets," I retorted.

Luke looked confused. "I'm not kidnapping you," he said. When I rolled my eyes, he said, "No really. I could tell you everything if you just swore your secrecy."

"Fine," I said with reluctance. I was reluctant, but curious, and curiosity won the battle over precaution.

"This isn't an architecture company," said Luke, "it's the headquarters for the CIA. That gunshot you heard was one of the newer agents trying to figure out how to work a gun. That's it. That's the truth."

I knew it was true. The way Luke said it, the uncomfortable front desk lady, and the atmosphere this building gave me - I knew it had to be true. I nodded at no one and nothing in particular.

"You've sworn your secrecy," said Luke, "and I have it on tape. I have witnesses. Now you may go back to your house or wherever you came from, and remember that if you say a word of this to anyone, you can be prosecuted as a traitor."

I understood the full, deadly weight of the words Luke said to me, but they filled me with an excitement that I had never felt before.

"I'm never going to tell anyone," I said, "but I did come here for a job, and I'm not going to leave without one."  
"The government can get you any job you want-" Luke started.

"No, " I cut in, "I want to be a spy."

Luke looked at me and seemed to sense my determination. He waved his hand and the door opened, revealing thirty normal-looking people. They were there to witness the signing of my contract and the oath of secrecy and loyalty I took.

I never knew why they trusted me, but I guess they didn't really have a choice. And so I became a spy, partnered with Luke because his old partner had been promoted. I turned out to be pretty good during training, and our first mission was a huge success. We only ever went on two other missions, but they were such overwhelming successes that we became one of the most respected teams.

 _-End flashback-_

"Hey Annie," a voice interrupted my memories. It was Luke.

"Stop calling me Annie!" I complained for the millionth time. I hate that name.

"Oh whatever, that's not important right now. I was a little late because apparently we have a new mission, and it's urgent. Come on, we have to hurry."


	2. Chapter 2

**(Annabeth's POV)**

"What are we supposed to be doing?" I asked as Luke and I ran down the hallway.

"No one told me exactly, they just said to get you and go to The Boss' office," Luke said calmly.

I didn't reply, because I was too busy trying to remember the code needed to unlock the secret door that led to the basement. I recalled the numbers "232-27489-35" on one of the blueprints, so I tried them. It worked. After about thirty more seconds of running through rooms and punching in codes, Luke and I found The Boss' office - we'd only ever been there twice before.

Nodding at Luke, I opened the door and saw The Boss sitting at his desk. The Boss wasn't his real name, of course, (his real name was Chiron or something), but everyone called him that. He was apparently the best secret agent ever to exist; his enemies feared him but never knew if he was real; they only found out the truth once it was too late. The Boss wasn't actually the head of the CIA (the head of the CIA probably didn't know he existed), but just some regular guy that looked three hundred years old but moved with the agility of youth. The Boss wasn't really the boss of anything; the agents before me had given him that name, and everyone after just went along with it.

When we entered the office, The Boss jumped up and exclaimed, "Ms. Chase! Mr. Castellan! There you are! I have been informed this morning of the capture of one our new agents. He has not received sufficient training, and even if he had, he would not be able to defend himself very well. Your task is to rescue the agent before he gives away everything he knows; what he knows is valuable information that can put him, you, us, this country, and the world at risk. I have no doubt that this agent has the utmost loyalty, but when put under too much pressure, not even I can tell if he will break."

I stood there, excited. "So where do we go?" I asked.

"We go to the Island of Ogygia," he answered, "it is a small, unknown island in the middle of nowhere, but our spy planes have transmitted data telling us where to find it. Unfortunately I cannot tell you where it is located, as it is confidential," he finished. He looked at Luke. Luke nodded, and I knew he knew where Ogygia was.

I have to admit I was a little jealous, but I knew that I had to focus on this mission.

"Ok...well who even is the enemy?" I questioned. "Like, the enemy that captured him - the new agent?"

The Boss sighed, "I don't know. The only information I have on them is that they seem to be a relatively new group - not affiliated with one country - possibly a group of power-hungry people, but a pretty talented one it seems."

There was a short silence.

"Well," said Luke, "I think we should be going now…"  
"You're right!" said The Boss, "I am coming with you this time - I must see this new enemy face to face. There is a helicopter waiting on the underground launchpad. Hurry there! I will be right behind."

Luke and I ran again through the barely navigable maze of hallways. I was excited for this new mission, but a little nervous at the same time. None of my other missions had been of this high caliber - they were mostly just rescuing sensitive files or tracking down suspects, but actually rescuing a fellow agent from a new, powerful enemy was completely new. Speaking of this captured agent, I realized now that no one even ever told me his name.

"Jackson," said Luke.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"His name is - the new agent we have to rescue is Percy Jackson."  
"Oh," I said, surprised. How did Luke know what I was thinking? He always seemed to know what I was thinking.

We arrived at the launchpad. The Boss was already there - he had a way of getting places - and there was a large helicopter ready for flight. The three of us fit inside with plenty of space left to spare, and The Boss was in the cockpit. In almost no time at all, The Boss had flown us out the tunnel into the air. I had never been on a helicopter before - at least not one that flew this fast. The wind was whipping so hard that I could almost feel it from inside. I was yelling to Luke, but I don't think he heard me, so instead I just made sure I had everything with me. Gun? Check. Extra ammunition? Check. Swiss Army knife? Check. First Aid Kit? Check. Pepper spray? Check. Bullet proof vest? Yes, I was wearing it.

After I finished my inventory, I decided to get out my book. I had nothing else to do, so I decided, why not? That's something I forgot to mention about myself - I love reading. The current book I'm reading is called "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Alexandre Dumas. I absolutely lo -

A massive wave of force almost threw the book from my hands. We had landed on a rough, rocky coastline with beautiful crystal clear waves. I heard The Boss curse under his breath in a strange language - I often heard him speaking it, but I could never decipher it. It's all Greek to me **(sorry for the terrible pun)**.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No," he said, "I just wish I could've made our arrival a little less obvious."

I nodded and followed his lead, getting out of the helicopter. Luke did the same.

We were on a sandy beach that, frankly, looked more like a lost paradise than anything. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to admire the landscape, because I saw that Luke and The Boss were already a hundred paces away. I ran to catch up to them, trying to mask the sound of my footsteps. I knew I should have been more careful, but I decided to take my chances before I ended up separating the entire group. When I finally reached them, The Boss whispered to me in a barely audible voice, "The tracking device we installed on the agent has led us to this cave (he pointed to a dark hole in the mountain). Obviously, it will be lined with defenders and defenses. We should stay together for now, and split up only if absolutely necessary."

I agreed, but I didn't even know what situation would qualify as "absolutely necessary." I looked at Luke and he nodded at me. I started walking toward the cave, unafraid. I checked for traps but met none; still I did not doubt that there would be something or someone waiting for me if I dropped my guard. I couldn't hear anything, but I knew my two companions were following me. The question was: was anyone else?

Suddenly I heard what sounded like a muffled cry, quickly silenced. I rapidly spun around, but saw nothing. Indeed I expected to see nothing, because the darkness in the cave was so complete that I doubt a light would have helped. I heard the sound of two pebbles falling, one after the other, and knew Luke and The Boss were still there. I dropped my own pebble in response. This was our signal, but it would only work if we were close together.

I felt my way along the cave walls in the direction I thought I heard the cry, and soon my hand reached an opening. I felt Luke and The Boss approaching it, so I entered, carefully and silently. The opening led me down an apparent straight path; it seemed very long. We still had not come across any defenses, and we might have left the cave thinking the agent wasn't here if it wasn't for that muffled scream. So, still, I kept my weapons ready.

Suddenly, as I walked, I noticed it began to get lighter. At first I thought my eyes were just adjusting to the darkness, but I realized that there was indeed some source of light emanating from some place. The difference was very subtle; I wasn't able to see any cave formations, but I definitely knew that someone was here. I kept walking and eventually I was able to see shadows forming, but the light stopped increasing; in fact, it seemed to go out.

I jumped in surprise when someone grabbed me from behind. I tried to yell for help but my yells were drowned out by a gunshot and a piercing shriek that shattered the darkness. I realized the gunshot sounded very close, and sure enough, someone had shot the thing that was restraining me. I felt it recoil in pain as I escaped from its grasp. I reached in my pocket and grabbed a pebble, dropping it and hearing the reply of two others. The owners of the pebbles all moved toward each other.

"Thanks, whoever did that," I whispered.

No one answered, but I felt the gestures of someone - The Boss, I think - taking the lead and motioning to us to follow.

We walked in silence for minutes, my guard severely heightened after whatever-it-was-that-tried-to-kill-me. Suddenly we stopped, and I knew why. There were muffled noises coming from the walls of the cave. I heard the sound of The Boss' hand pressing spots on the wall, and after seconds of trying the wall crumbled. It was fake - made of painted foam, I think. We saw a brightly lit room, and although my eyes burned for a second at the shock of the light, they adjusted the next second when I impulsively moved and bullets blew through the space where I had just been standing. I drew my gun and saw a semiconscious boy about Luke's age, maybe a year younger, all dressed in black and chained to a wall. There was one guard, who was shooting at us, but I could hear the approaching footsteps of more.

I heard shots and turned just in time to see The Boss take out the guard. I ran up to the prisoner and shot through the rather weak chains. I realized he was somehow sleeping through all this noise, but before I could do anything about it Luke came over, slapped him across the head, and he woke up.

"Let me go!" Was the first thing the captive said.

"We're friends," said The Boss, "now hurry b efore...they come again."

The captive seemed to understand and immediately got up. The Boss gave him a spare pistol, and we ran.

We made it to the end of the long "hallway" of the cave when we heard footsteps. We immediately pulled ourselves against the walls, guns ready to fire. The footsteps grew louder and soon I knew they were about to find us. I gathered my breath and put my finger on the trigger, ready to react to the slightest sound. Suddenly I heard a slashing sound and a scream, followed by an gunshot and another scream. I didn't know where to turn, or what to do. I took out my knife and put my gun away, deciding that trying to shoot a gun at something in the heavy darkness of this cave had about the same chance of killing my friends as it did of killing my enemies. I could, at least, control where the blade of my knife went, and I preferred it anyway.

There was silence for a while as I waited, but I heard the voice of Luke call out, "Annabeth! Help me, it's The Boss!"

I turned to the direction of the voice and ran, throwing caution to the wind, until I almost tripped over a lump.

"The Boss-" Luke whispered to me suddenly, "someone shot him."  
"Where?!" I exclaimed.

"Do you really think I could tell in this darkness? We have to get out of here before he bleeds to death or something...Pe-Agent Jackson!" Luke called.

"That's me!" Came a cheerful voice.

"Get over here now!" said Luke, "we need your help!"

"Shouldn't we be watching for...you know, the people who are trying to kill us?" I asked.

"They're gone now," Luke replied impatiently, "if they were still here they wouldn't have waited for us to regroup before they killed us. But we have to go now, or there _will_ be reinforcements." By now Agent Jackson had found us, and he was helping Luke carry The Boss. I guarded the rear.

By some strange miracle we made it back to the helicopter, which had somehow also survived. It was all too simple, I thought. We shouldn't have survived, and an enemy that was able to kidnap an agent from one of the most secure places should be powerful enough to defend its base. But nevertheless, things happened as they happened, and I was alive, so I was happy.

But The Boss...I remembered…

Luke took the controls of the helicopter while I tried to stop the flow of blood from The Boss' back (apparently that's where he got shot). The Jackson kid was...sleeping, it looked like. I rolled my eyes. Couldn't this guy be any help? Luke seemed to read my mind again, and turned around, yelling over the noise,

"Hey, Jackson, get up!"

It was then that I noticed that the side of Luke's face was bleeding. There was a deep gash, and suddenly I realized what the slashing sound and following scream were.

"Luke!" I gasped, "Are you okay?"

He didn't hear me; he just turned around and continued flying. The agent we rescued was still sleeping. I sighed and continued trying to revive The Boss.

Finally we arrived back at Athens Architecture Inc. We sent The Boss to the hospital and Luke took Agent Jackson (who had finally woken up) for questioning. I, meanwhile, was left sitting at my desk. From the looks of it, about thirteen hours had passed. It was the middle of the night and no one was at work. I decided I was too tired to go home, so I slept at my desk, and I woke up to the sound of Luke's voice.

"Annabeth," he said, "I need to te-"

"Your face has a huge gash in it are you okay?!" was the first thing I said, interrupting him.

"Wha-? Yes, I'm fine, it'll just be a scar, but...what I came to tell you was that...that The Boss is paralyzed from the waist down. The bullet severed his spinal cord, but the doctors were able to restore movement to his upper body. He'll never be able to walk again."

"Wow," I said, not knowing how to react. I didn't know The Boss that well, but he was still a big deal.

Luke sat down as I said that.

"Well," he said, rummaging through a pile of papers waiting to be decoded, "there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's get back to work."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **A/N: Hey guys. So before I start this chapter I'm just going to say that I'll update this story about once a week, probably on Friday or Saturday. Thanks for reading:)**

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

I sighed and began decoding the papers at my desk. They weren't actually important; they were just practice in case we actually needed to decode something. Whatever I did at work when I wasn't on a mission was always changing. Some days we decoded fake messages, sometimes we decoded _real_ messages, we had classes on how to hack and secure computer interfaces, of course we had to undergo daily physical training, and we had to do a lot of other stuff that's confidential so I can't reveal it.

I looked over at Luke, who was working next to me. He was one of the best agents physically and mentally; he always worked hard, rarely took days off, and so far the only agent who could even compete with him in physical training was me. Since the day I met Luke, I have always been very intrigued by him. His striking blond hair and blue eyes captivated me in a way none had done before. Luke's physique was no less attractive; he was muscular and athletic; there were rumors going around that he had run the 100m dash in 15 seconds. I could see that the scar growing under Luke's eye took away nothing from his appearance.

I had this strange feeling whenever I was around Luke that I could never decipher. I didn't like it when Luke wasn't around; it made me feel nervous and unsafe. Of course, I couldn't ever _tell_ him this stuff, or he'd think I had a crush on him (even though I pretty much believe that it's true...what other explanation could there be?), and I'd seen what had happened to other girls who tried to get closer to him. Luke could tell when you liked- _liked_ him, and he made sure you knew if he didn't like you back. Lets just say he broke a lot of hearts that way.

"Hey," said a voice behind me, interrupting my thoughts.

Luke and I turned.

"Hi, it's me...uh, Percy Jackson. Uh...I just wanted to say thank you for help - I mean rescuing - me," said the voice, who was indeed Percy Jackson.

Although I had seen him yesterday, it was the first time I saw him up close. He had really messy black hair and pretty sea green eyes, and he looked really nervous. He was scratching his head and standing there awkwardly as Luke and I stared blankly at him.

"So yeah, thanks," he said again and speed-walked away.

Luke waited until he was gone, and then he said, "You know that guy."

"Me?" I said, "No I don't. I mean we kind of saw him yesterday or whatever, but I don't _know_ him."

Luke grinned. "Remember three years ago, when you came to apply for an architecture job here?"

"Yeah…."

"Do you remember that bullet that we told you a new agent fired when trying to learn how to use a gun? Well that 'new agent' was Percy Jackson. After that little mishap, we kind of released him from training, but he came back to reapply recently."  
I was a surprised at this coincidence. "Wow," I said, "so is he getting the job this time? Is he any better with a gun?"  
"He already knows too much about, well, everything, so they have to let him in or risk him telling everything to...others," Luke replied, turning back to his work.

I smiled inwardly at this strange coincidence. It was a small world, after all.

I finished my work with half an hour to spare before the physical training got underway and decided to walk around, find a new book to read, and rest. But then, because a spy can never rest, I heard an agent call my name.

"Hey Annabeth?" a woman asked. Her name was Agent Mellie - the same woman who had worked as a receptionist three years before when I first became a spy. She was so sweet, but she never seemed to get her work done.

"Yeah?" I called back.

"I see that you're done with your work. Would you mind doing me a little favor?"  
"Sure," I said, hesitantly.

"Oh, thank you so much! I was supposed to show the new agent here - Percy Jackson - around the place because apparently he's only seen a few rooms, but I still have a _ton_ of work to do _and_ I have to go check on the Boss and make sure he's getting the proper care. Could you show him around instead?" She asked sweetly.

I sighed. This would mean no rest between now and physical training. But Mellie, who was so nice, so sweet - you couldn't just say no to her. Plus, she was pregnant. She was married to this guy known as "Coach Hedge," and although they were polar opposites, they were very happy together.

I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Oh, uh, of course, Mellie!" I replied with ill-feigned enthusiasm.

"Thank you so much, dear!" Mellie smiled as she went back to her stacks of paperwork.

I sighed and looked around to find the Jackson kid.

"Are you looking for me?" A voice asked.

I whirled around. It was Jackson.

"I, uh, overheard you talking to Agent Mellie," he explained.

I nodded and motioned for him to follow me. I didn't know where to take him first, but I decided that we could go through some of the hallways underground.

"So, uh, about the rescuing thing...thanks again," he said awkwardly.

"Listen, Jackson," I said, probably a little harshly, but it was too late to change that now. "You don't need to thank me for that. Really. I was just doing my job."  
"Yeah but you saved my life."

"So?"

"So thank y-"  
"Okay fine. I accept your thanks. Are you happy now, Jackson?"

He flinched. "You don't have to call me Jackson," he said, "My name's Percy."

I rolled my eyes. "No duh," I muttered.

The next ten minutes went by in silence as I quietly pointed out the different rooms to him. He nodded along silently, but I got the feeling he wasn't paying attention. I mentally yelled at myself for agreeing to do this. I was wasting this time with this kid who didn't even care about what I was trying to show him, when I could be reading! Wow, this Jackson guy was so selfish - just standing there doing nothing! Couldn't he see that I _clearly_ wanted to be somewhere else? Couldn't he-

"You probably think I'm wasting your time," Jackson said, interrupting and reading my thoughts. Why could everyone read my thoughts? I was too taken aback to reply.

"So I'll leave now," he continued.  
And, sure enough, he walked away, eyes staring at the ground. I was too stunned to say anything, but suddenly I felt bad.

This Jackson guy must have been feeling awful. The first time he tried to be a spy, he misfired his gun and embarrassed himself in front of some of the world's top fighting forces, the second time he got himself captured, and not only that, he probably felt some guilt for the Boss getting wounded in the mission that was organized to save him - not to mention he fell asleep at the height of danger. I felt ashamed of myself for judging Jackson too quickly. Wait - Jackson? He had asked me to call him by his first name. I normally wouldn't, but he had been through a lot, and I had probably just made that "a lot" worse. So Percy. I guess I'll have to call him Percy now.

I felt an urge to apologize to Percy, but he had already disappeared. I looked at my watch - there were only five minutes until physical training. I could apologize to him then, since all agents were required to report to physical every day. I went back up to my office, pushed a button under my desk, and typed in a code into the machine that sprang up. The code unlocked a door that was concealed behind a large painting on the most inconspicuous wall. I entered and ran down to the training area and realized I was already a minute late. That was _not_ a good example to set - being late while there was a new agent trying to learn the ins and outs of spying.

When I got to the large underground field that was almost a perfect replica of outside, minus the sky, I immediately wanted to find Percy to apologize. The area was fairly empty; agents had different training times; but I saw Luke and some other experienced agents trying to scale a tall wall with a rope. I knew Percy would be in this session because new agents were always put with the most athletic agents, probably for embarrassment or something. I remember my first training session - Luke and a bunch of brawny guys and girls were doing pullups and I was absolutely terrified at the astonishing rate at which they got them done. Thankfully, over the years I've gotten accustomed to the demanding physical tests this job requires.

I saw Percy standing away from everyone else and staring blankly at his feet. I went up to him.

"Hey Percy," I said. He looked up. "I just wanted to apologize for being so rude and unhelpful to you earlier. I don't know, I guess I was just in a bad mood."  
Percy's sea green eyes brightened at this and his shoulders lifted up, as if a heavy load had just been taken off his back.

"Thank you," he said. Then, remembering my refusal to be thanked earlier, he said, "Oops. Sorry."

"Whatever," I said, "It doesn't matter. But if you actually do want the complete tour of this place, I could give you one."

"No, it's fine," Percy replied, "I can manage on my own. It's just nice to know that now someone at least doesn't seem to hate me."  
I looked at him questioningly.

"What?" He asked. "You haven't noticed how everyone ignores me? How everyone basically hates me?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "No one hates you. It's just that you're new, and everyone always picks on the new kid. Believe me, I know, because once I was new too."

Percy grinned and wanted to say "thanks" again, but he stopped himself. I could see the color of his eyes more clearly now that he was smiling. I realized I hadn't seen him smile before, but now that I had, it was contagious. I wanted to smile too.

Then a guy swinging a baseball bat wildly ran in. It was Coach Hedge, Mellie's wife. He was today's training instructor. I saw Percy staring at the Coach as if he was from another planet (he probably was, by the way), and I laughed. Percy's joints would be in for the biggest surprise of their life.

We spent the first five minutes stretching, and finally we were about to begin the actual physical work, when the bell signifying an emergency rang. My ears perked up and I listened, my heartbeat increasing rapidly, waiting for the announcement that would follow. "It's probably a drill," I thought. But I knew I was wrong when I heard Mellie's quaking voice over the loudspeaker.

"It is my regret to inform you that one of our best agents has passed away due to injuries sustained on a recent mission. His name was Agent Chiron, known to most of you as "the Boss", and he was the best and most honest man to have passed through this Agency in recent memory. His funeral will be held in two days at this time in Field 34, for all those who wish to pay their final respects. All activities are cancelled for the week." There was a pause. "We have lost a great man today." The intercom clicked off.

I groaned. I could hear Mellie's tearful voice holding back sobs as she delivered the news. I had never known the Boss well, but I knew of his actions enough to know that he was probably the greatest agent known to humankind, both physically and morally. His death must have really struck those who had operated with him in the height of his days - the agents who were older than me. I looked across the field at Luke. He was rooted firmly to the ground, his eyes fixed on the loudspeaker. His blue eyes were burning with an indefinable fire that I wouldn't dare to guess the cause of.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **A/N: Hello again! Thanks to all those who reviewed or even just took the time to read this story, it means a lot to me!**

 **(Percy's POV)**

When I heard the announcement of the death of one of the agency, I wasn't that surprised. I mean, doesn't that happen often? Spying is a dangerous business, after all. But when I looked around at the faces of other agents, I saw that this was _not_ a regular occurrence, and the person who had just died must have held a special place in the hearts of most people here. Then, with a shock, I realized that he had died from "injuries sustained on a mission." I shuddered. For all I knew, the mission to save me had been the only recent mission. I also remembered… slightly...the image of a blood pouring from a wound on the helicopter just before I fell asleep. If only I could have done something to help him! Or Annabeth, who I think I might have heard calling me to wake up. Great. This was all my fault, wasn't it?

"No," said a voice next to me.

I turned. It was Annabeth. I stared at her in shock. Did she just read my thoughts? Could everybody read my thoughts?

"It's not your fault," said Annabeth. "It's not mine either, but I'm more to blame than you. I could have at least...found something to do to save him."

I looked at her again, and I saw her deep gray eyes forming storm clouds as her expression darkened. She kept glancing over in Luke's direction, and I saw how firmly rooted to the ground he was. His eyes were blue. He was tall, muscular, intimidating. He looked exactly like I remembered. Luke was staring at the intercom fixedly, not moving, and he looked like his eyes burned with a fire that would have scorched me if I was the object of his gaze. I felt like, at that moment, if I my mind had not been too overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the past few days, I would have fainted. He shifted his eyes for half a second and looked in our direction. Annabeth blushed and turned away from him.

"Look," she said to me after a while. "You probably don't know what this is all about. Deaths don't come very often here, as much as you would think they do. The last death we had was four years ago, before I came. And this death, this one is major. A lot of people knew The Boss. There were even legends about him. I didn't know him very well, but some people did. And I think Luke was one of them. Just...don't expect it to be a fun place to work here for a few weeks."

"Ok," I replied. "Thanks for trying to help me understand this."

"It's the least I could do," she said. "It's not often that a new agent comes around and an old agent dies around here. Things are happening really quickly all of a sudden, and it can't be a coincidence."

"Well, The Boss dying is kind of connected to my arrival." I tensed up at this, and a new wave of shame and embarrassment poured over me.

"I told you, it's not your fault!" Annabeth exclaimed worriedly.

"No, just - it is. It is my fault. Some spy I'm turning out to be. You guys risk your lives to save me and what do I do? Fall asleep while you're trying to help my rescuer - a job I should have been doing. This whole time I've been extremely ungrateful. Look where it's gotten us. He's dead. It's my fault."

I could tell that Annabeth wanted to tell me it wasn't my fault again. I walked away. I knew it was my fault. It was my fault that the most trusted and respected agent in th century, probably, died. What could I do to make it up to people? Nothing, I knew, but I promised myself then to be completely committed to my work, to help anyone in need, to never betray anyone, and to do everything in my power to make myself a living memorial of the Boss's values.

At this, I was able to forgive myself a little for my part in his death. I was at my office, but there was no point in staying. I decided to go back to my house. I would never have been able to afford a house, but apparently it was paid for by the Agency. My house was small but comfortable. I went inside and walked into the kitchen. I saw the bottle of blue food dye that I had used to dye my breakfast this morning. It offered me comfort to remember the times that my mom and I made with that food dye, proving my evil stepdad wrong, that food really could be blue.

It was hardly without a sigh that I thought of my mom. She was the only person that had ever loved me - my dad died when I was young and my stepdad was the definition of "psychopath." Unfortunately, she disappeared three years ago. Just vanished. I called the police, tried everything, but no one found any trace of her. It was then I first decided to try to be a spy - I thought the action would help me get over my grief. But that fell through. I absolutely failed the test when my gun misfired and almost killed someone in another room. I can still remember that day clearly…

 _-Flashback-_

"Athens Architecture Inc."

I read those words on the dilapidated building I saw in front of me, but I knew that it wasn't really an architecture company. My grandpa from my mom's side, before he died, told me the secrets of that building. He knew because he had worked there. I thought being a spy sounded like fun, but that was just it - a thought. I never seriously considered being one until today. And today, I'm not trying "just for fun." I'm trying for my mom - "No. Bad Percy. Don't think about her," I thought to myself. I'm doing this to get my mind off of her, anyway. But can I ever?

I opened the door to the building without knocking and walked in. There was a receptionist desk, but it was empty. The only person in the room was a tall, muscular boy with blond hair and striking blue eyes.  
"Hey," I said, and he looked at me.

"Welcome to Athens Architecture!" He exclaimed, with a bright - almost fake - smile, "What can I do for you today?"

"You can drop the act," I said bluntly. "I know what this place is. And I want to be a spy."

There was an awkward silence in which the boy tried to recover from his ill-hidden shock.

"Please," I said.

"You're mistaken. I don't know about any spying places around here, but -"

"Yes you do. This is one," I pressed on, "In fact, my grandfather worked here. His name was Jack Triton."

The boy finally looked defeated. "Fine," he said. "Since you obviously know so much, you can apply here. But don't take this job lightly. That's just about the worst thing you could do."  
"I won't, believe me."

Another pause.

"Follow me," said the boy.

I followed him.

We walked through corridor after corridor. At first I wondered why he didn't blindfold me, but then I realized that it was impossible to keep track of where we were going. Every room, every hallway, looked the finally ended up in a small, dark room furnished with only a table and five chairs. We both sat down. I waited.

"What's your name?" The boy said.

"Percy Jackson."  
"Your _full_ name, I mean."

"Perseus Jackson," I said, uneasy that he knew Percy wasn't my full name.

"Who and where are your parents?"

"I - my birth father is dead. He died when I wa-"  
"Three, I know. He died when you were three. I mean who and where are your parents _now_?"

Okay. This was getting creepy. How did this guy know this stuff about me? Instinct told me not to answer, but I did, anyway.

"My mom was - _is_ \- Sally Jackson. I don't know where she is, honestly. She's been missing for two weeks. My, uh, stepdad is Gabe Ugliano. He's in my old house in New York. I ran away from him when my mom disappeared." I could feel myself choking back tears.

"Where did you get your education? And for how long?" He asked me again.

"I went to Yancy Academy for elementary and middle school. I went to Goode High School for three years, and then I came here. I kind of ran away from that too."

The boy did not look impressed.

"So why do you think we should let you into this highly selective Agency that only accepts people who actually _try_ to work hard?"

"Because if you don't," I said, finally feeling like I could gain the upper ground, "Because if you don't than I could tell everyone what I know. The location, the purpose, everything."

"Not if we dispose of you," he said in a cool, hard voice.

"You won't dispose of me," I said with conviction, putting as much force as I could behind my words.

The atmosphere was tense for a while, but the boy broke the ice.

"You're right about that, at least. We won't dispose of you. We might be able to use you. But you still have to pass the physical examinations, and, of course, the background checks."

"Of course," I said.

"And swear to me now, that if you fail, you will leave peacefully and tell no one about any of this. If you do, I promise you that we will find you and hunt you down."

He said these words with such malignance that I wanted to run, but I couldn't, because I had already compromised myself too much.

"Fine," I said, clenching my teeth. "I swear that, if I fail, I will leave without a fight and tell no one about anything, under consequence of...death, I guess."

At this, the boy smiled his plastic smile and stood up.

"Training starts tomorrow. Be here, at seven a.m. Have you ever fired a gun before?"  
"No," I said.

"Well," said the boy, "You will have before the week ends."

With this, he walked me back to the entrance of the building and reminded me not to be late.

The next morning, I was at Athens Architecture at precisely seven. A different person, another tall, muscular boy with blond hair and blue eyes, met me at the door.

"Welcome, Jackson," he said with a smile that didn't seem fake. "My name is Agent Grace. Jason Grace, actually. Agent Castellan asked me to be here to take you to the training area."  
"Agent Castellan?" I asked.

"Yeah - Luke Castellan, he looks like me, but let's be real here - he's thirty times better than anyone at this place could even dream of being. Anyway, I'll need to blindfold you."  
I let myself be blindfolded and spun around. Then I felt myself being dragged somewhere by this Jason guy.

After five minutes or so, I found myself at a shooting range. There were pistols hung up on the wall and brand new targets stood waiting to be hit.

Over the next hour, Jason showed me how to load, unload, and fire the gun. When it came my turn to try, I grabbed a pistol.

Unfortunately, I pressed the trigger before I was ready, and my unprepared grip let the gun fall. In the middle of its fall a bullet exploded through the chamber and pierced a door. I heard a cry of shock.

Embarrassed, I apologized to Jason and asked him if I could go make sure whoever had made that cry was okay. He just shook his head at me and told me to wait.

Soon, the same boy - Luke, I guess - was at the range. He looked angrily at me, but behind his glare I thought I could sense amusement.

"Well, Perseus Jackson," he said. "I guess your career as a spy has ended very suddenly." He blindfolded me and led me back to the door, pushing me out and saying before he did so, "Remember, you swore. We have eyes everywhere, and someone like you, with your complete lack of skill, won't be so hard for us to find."

I was too ashamed to do anything, so I didn't. I walked to a train station and bought a ticket for a ship. I needed to get away from my life. It was _not_ going well.

 _-End flashback-_

That was my story. I, of course, reapplied three years later, and I made it. I had learned to fire correctly and I was in better physical shape. The memory of my poor mother still haunted me, and I still could think of no better way to escape. But that wasn't it, anymore. Now the quest to become a spy was also about proving myself. I've had a hard time doing that, haven't I?


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **A/N:** **Hey guys. Sorry this is like a day late or whatever. Anyway, happy early Easter and hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

 **(Percy POV)**

I didn't go to work the next day, but I went to the funeral. It was short but solemn, and when it was over I heard a voice over the intercom saying that the building would be closed for the rest of the day, and that we should all go home now. I decided not to. Instead, I went to my office and tried to get some of my work done - work from what seemed like weeks ago that I hadn't finished. I wanted to start making up for my mistakes sooner than later. I figured they wouldn't get angry at me for doing work, and I could always just leave later.

It took me hours to figure out how to decode the sheets in front of me, and when I was done I flipped a switch under my desk, and a hidden panel in the wall slid away, revealing a tunnel. I dumped my stack of papers down the opening and it closed behind me. That was common procedure - none of us ever knew if we were decoding something of actual importance, but we had to submit all of our papers anyway. Chances were I wasn't doing anything significant. They probably wouldn't trust a new recruit who had already messed everything up with an important document.

I sighed. It was going to take a while to earn the trust of at least one person. I realized I had to go to the bathroom. As I walked in its direction, I thought I heard voices coming from a room next to it. I paused. Didn't everyone go home? My heart began to beat harder, faster. "It's just your imagination." My mind said. The voices became a little more audible as I got reached the bathroom. It was not my imagination. Then I thought it was a secret meeting. Maybe that was why they closed the building? I entered the bathroom and I heard a familiar voice from the other room saying,

"I think I hear footprints."

I froze in my place.

"Everyone has left already, you closed the place. It's just your imagination," a stranger's voice replied.

I realized that it probably _was_ a secret meeting. And I wasn't supposed to be there. I was about to leave the bathroom when the familiar voice said,

"No. Wait here. I'll be back."

There was no time to run. Or hide. I heard the door open and in two seconds I saw someone enter the bathroom. It was Luke. So he was the familiar voice.

"Hello, Jackson," he said coldly. "I see you think that the rules do not apply to you. We asked everyone to leave. Everyone did. You didn't."

"Sorry," I muttered, "I...I didn't mean to disobey the rules. I was just trying to make up the work that I hadn't done before and -"  
"No excuses, Agent. You don't get any strikes. But since you're new, I'll give you a warning. Never, ever, disobey the rules again. If you are asked to do something, do it. Or else you're out. Now leave, and come back tomorrow when we're open."

I nodded and left the building, not looking back once, but I could tell Luke was watching me. When I closed the doors behind me, the lock clicked and I saw Luke turning around and going back to his meeting.

- _Next day_ -

I arrived at work later than usual today. I went over to my desk and a tall guy with blond hair who looked like Luke came over. I remembered him from somewhere...

"Hey, Perseus. I'm Jason Grace. I don't know if you remember me, but -"

"I remember you. It's going to be a while before I can forget that day. Oh, also, you can call me Percy," I interrupted.

"Okay, Percy. So. Anyway. You're new, and Luke - you remember him too, don't you? Luke asked me to be your partner. Everyone has one, but mine recently got paired with someone else."

"Cool. So what do partners do?"  
"Well we basically just work together and train together, and if there's a mission we do that together. But since all activities have been canceled this week, the only thing we'll be doing is whatever they give us."  
"Who's 'they'?"

"The higher-ups. No one really knows who they are, but rumor has it that Luke is one of them." He said the last part in a low tone, making sure no one could hear him.

There was a silence, Jason sat down in the chair next to mine, and we both began to work.

I looked around me and realized that Luke was nowhere to be seen. Usually he was working with his partner, Annabeth.

"Do you know where Luke is?" I asked Jason.

"Nope," he said. "He hasn't been here all day. Annabeth might know, though, but chances are she doesn't. Luke disappears randomly a lot. It's strange, but it's normal. That's why a lot of us think he's one of the people in charge of this place."

Annabeth saw us looking in her direction and she smiled faintly. I couldn't help but feel my heart beat faster and my cheeks redden a little. It must have been obvious, because Jason winked at me when Annabeth turned around.

"Don't try to get too close to her or anything. Luke is really protective of her, and some of us think they might be dating. If they are, they're keeping it secret."

I was a little stunned at Jason's openness, and I blushed even harder with embarrassment. I mumbled something about papers and went back to my work, which was a research paper about the history of the Agency. Apparently all new agents had to write one.

When work was over a couple of hours later, I went back to my apartment building. When I got in the elevator, I saw Annabeth, much to my surprise.

"Uh, hi," I said awkwardly. "Do you live here too?"

"Obviously," she said. "What room are you staying in?"  
"327. What room do you live in?"  
She smirked. "I don't give away personal information."

"Well, I know what floor you live on."

"How?" She asked.

"You pressed the button for level 6."  
"So? How do you know that's where I live? I'm going to level 6, but for all you know I'm only going there to take the stairs to another level. Or maybe I do live there. But I'm not telling you."

I grinned in defeat. "Okay, fine. You win."

"I always do."

And the elevator stopped at the sixth floor, where Annabeth got out, leaving me alone for the next minute at least because of course I had to live on the top floor.

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

I did, in fact, live on the sixth floor, but I was the only one who knew that - except Luke. Luke knew almost everything about me. I could trust him with anything. Actually, thinking of Luke reminded me that I hadn't seen or heard from him all day. I decided to go look for him. I waited for the elevator, but it was taking forever so instead I ran down the stairs and got in my car. I never really use my car since work is so close, but I was so tired that I decided I could save walking for tomorrow.

When I got to the Athens Architecture, Inc. building, I saw that everyone had left. I used my specially made ID badge to unlock the door, then entered a series of combinations. The building was empty, and as I walked past the hallways looking for a place Luke might be, I thought I heard voices. I paused for a second before deciding it was just my imagination and continued walking. After ten minutes I realized why I couldn't find him. The building was technically closed, and everyone was supposed to be at home. Luke would never violate the rules - he was either at his house or apartment or wherever he lived (he never told me) or on a mission or something like that. I sighed, turned around, and went back to my apartment where I grabbed a random book and fell asleep trying to read it.

 **(Percy's POV)**

I finally got to my room and, when I did, I collapsed onto my bed to sleep. I hadn't realized how tired I was.

"Maybe I shouldn't have tried to be a spy, after all," I muttered to myself. It was harder than I thought - but the hard part was that I didn't even _do_ anything except decode, hack, and...yeah.

I saw my phone lying on the nightstand. Why hadn't I gotten rid of it yet? We weren't supposed to have one, for security reasons, but I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the last present that my mom had got for me.

"Oh well," I thought. "It's not like I use it that often anyway."

And then I fell asleep, because even though I had done basically nothing that entire day, doing nothing is pretty tiring work.

 **(Third Person POV)**

"Is he asleep yet?" A voice asked from an empty, secret room in Athens Architecture, Inc.

"Yes. I think I can hear him snoring," another voice responded.

"Do you think he knows?"  
"No one knows. No one ever finds out."

"So he hasn't gotten rid of his phone yet, has he?"  
"Nope. I don't think he's planning to, either."  
"So what should we do about that?"  
"What we've been doing this whole time. Pretend we don't know."  
"Or we could pretend we don't know but slowly hint at it. Just to, like, creep him out or something."  
"Fine, do that if you want, but just be careful. You can't go around revealing our secrets."  
"Relax. I won't go _that_ far. And besides, even if I did, he would probably be too clueless to realize what I was saying."

"Even so - wait. I hear footprints."  
"Well it can't be him again, he's asleep."  
"Shh. Be quiet."  
The owner of the second voice got up and looked out the small slit in the wall. There was silence for half a minute as the footprints gradually faded away. After ten minutes, the sound of footprints faded in and out again. Fifteen minutes later, the second voice sat down.

"Switch to room 119, floor 6," said the second voice. There was a pause as the first voice fiddled with a device.

A live video feed of a girl with curly blond hair reading a book came up.

"Good," said the second voice. "You can turn it off now."

"Who was it?" Asked the first voice.

"Annabeth Chase. An agent here since about three years ago."

"Didn't we watch her go to her apartment before?"  
"She left a few minutes later, remember?"

"Oh. Right. Well, do think she heard anything?"  
"No. But since we've already had two interruptions in the last two days, I think I'd better soundproof these walls, just in case we have more visitors."

The second voice got up again and paced around the room for a few minutes.

"You can leave now," said the second voice. "Come back tomorrow and we'll set up the cameras in his car."

"Okay. Bye," said the first voice.

And the first voice left, watched closely by the second voice through a set of clear, piercing blue eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **A/N: Hi! So I'm posting this chapter early because I'm going somewhere on Friday where I won't have internet access. Also, sorry if the quality or formatting is poor - I kind of rushed through this. Anyway, here's the chapter. Enjoy :)**

 **(Third Person POV)**

The phone rang in an apartment room across the street from where Percy and Annabeth lived. It was midnight.

"Hello?" The person who lived there answered the phone tiredly. "It's midnight. Who is this?"

"I know it's midnight," replied the caller in a deep, raw voice. "There's been a change in plans. We have to do the cameras now, because I have something I have to do later."

"What?" Asked the receiver crankily.

"I can't, and won't, tell you. You'll find out soon enough, though - through other sources."

"Couldn't you have just gotten me up earlier, when I was still awake?"  
"I just found out about it. Well, actually, I know about it now but will be officially notified of it later. I'm not supposed to know now, probably. But that's beside the point. I need you now. Get the equipment and meet me outside."

The caller heard a groan coming from the other end of the line.

"Is there a problem with that?" The caller asked, almost threateningly.

"No, no, no," the other person answered hurriedly. "It's fine. I'll be right there. With all the equipment."  
"Good," said the caller. The caller hung up.

Five minutes later, the caller and the receiver had met up in the parking lot of the apartment building that housed Percy and Annabeth.

"How are we supposed to know which one is his?" Asked the receiver, looking at all the cars.

"Be quiet. We can't let anyone hear us. And don't worry - of course I know which one is his. I'm the one who chose it, wasn't I?"

Within the next ten minutes, the caller and receiver had unlocked the car they were looking for, lined it with wires, listening devices, and hidden cameras, and were done. It was clear they had done this many times before.

"Great," said the receiver. "Now I can go back to sleep."  
"No - wait," said the caller. "I want to do his phone, too."  
"Now?"  
"When else? Of course we're doing it now. Come on."  
"What? Are you crazy? He's _in his room_. What if he wakes up? What if he has _already_ woken up? What would we say? We can't just-"  
"For goodness sake, stop worrying. Just look at all this precious time you've wasted. Nothing's going to happen, believe me."  
"But-"  
"I _will_ kill her," the caller said in a dark, bitter tone.

"You wouldn't," the receiver answered, trying to sound brave but nevertheless shivering in fear.

"You know very well I would. Now, I suggest you follow me to his room unless you want to suffer the consequences."

The receiver acknowledged defeat and followed the caller. The receiver knew this was all wrong - all so messed up - but it was the only way the caller would let her out alive. The only way.

Just as the caller had said, Percy (and no one for that matter) realized that there were intruders bugging his phone. When the deed was done, the caller and receiver parted in two different states of mind - one terrified and remorseful, the other completely unaware that feelings or morality existed even in dreams.

 **(Luke's POV)**

After my short sleep, I was woken up by the shrill rings of my phone. I dragged myself out of bed and answered it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Agent Castellan?" The voice replied.

"Yes, I am Agent Luke Castellan."

"I am the leader of the Agency. I need you to report to my office tomorrow afternoon at 4:00."  
"Yes, sir."  
"Go to room 39 in the fourth hallway downstairs after you enter the second passcode. From there you will be blindfolded and led by my assistant. Be in room 39 by 3:50. It will take you ten minutes to get to my office from there."  
"Yes, sir."  
"Do you understand everything? Do you need me to repeat any directions?"  
"Yes, I understand. I heard and remembered everything."

"In that case, do not be late. What I need to tell you is something you would not want to miss."  
"I won't be late, I promise."

There was a pause and the man hung up.

"So it's finally happening," I thought. I knew what it was. I'd been waiting for it many years and there was only one possibility. Now, after years of patience, I could be patient for 4:00. I looked at the time - it was 6 am. Ten hours left to go. But now, it's time to go to work. That will change very shortly.

I was at the Athens Architecture building in a matter of minutes. There I saw Annabeth already at her desk, engrossed in her work. No one else was there. Annabeth and I were always the first people to arrive.

"Good morning," I said.

"Hey," she said, turning around to smile at me. "Where were you yesterday?"  
"Oh, you know," I replied. "Outside activities."  
"Well I'm glad to see that your outside activities weren't important enough for you to skip your job today."

I didn't reply to that and we were silently working for a long time before I said,

"Things are about to change, you know."

"What?" She said.

"Things are about to change."  
"Yes, I know you said that, but what do you mean?"  
"Something's going to happen this afternoon, and it's going to mean we're not going to see each other that often."  
I could see the color of Annabeth's cheeks darken and her stormy grey eyes showed confusion.

"Well it's not like we do, anyway, with you skipping work every other day," Annabeth said. Her voice sounded hurt.

"I have reasons," I said. "And it's not _that_ often."

"Your 'reasons' don't justify anything."

I could feel the air getting tighter. I had never had a fight with Annabeth before.

"My reasons justify lots of things."  
"Like what?"  
"My absences."  
"You know what, Luke? They don't. If you're not going to give me any solid reasons for anything, then just let me focus on my work."

"Ooooh. Is the couple fighting?" I heard a voice say. I turned around rapidly and saw Percy Jackson, who had just come in. I glared at him and forced all the cold, threatening things possible to burn through my eyes. He shrank back in fear and murmured an apology. He smiled to himself, though, when he sat down. I really hated that kid. He was going to cause me trouble some day. I'd have to watch him closely. I wish I'd never gone through the trouble to get him in, but he was the only one who would work for my -

"Luke," Annabeth whispered to me, interrupting my thoughts.

"What?" I said roughly.

"Were we?"  
"Were we what?"  
"Were we fighting?"  
"Obviously, but we're not a _couple_."

"Oh," she said, and she turned away. I could see a sliver of tear forming in her left eye.

- _Time passes_ -

I looked at the clock. It was 3:45. I got up.

"I have to go, Annie," I said. "This is the part where everything changes."

She didn't look up, and didn't even bother correcting her name. Oh well. Nothing I could do to change that.

I quickly made my way to room 39, where I was promptly blindfolded, spun around, and taken down numerous paths by a guide. It was all unnecessary precaution - I already knew where the leader's office was. I knew where everything was. I haven't worked here all these years to find out nothing. I arrived at the office at exactly 4. The door was opened, I was told to walk in, the door closed, and my blindfold was removed.

"Agent Castellan. I appreciate your punctuality." A tall man in a suit came over to shake my hand.

"I am the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. My name is Dionysus Wilson. Please, have a seat."  
I sat down in a chair across from his desk.

"Agent Castellan, all the years you have worked here faithfully and tirelessly."

I smiled.

"You have served this Agency in missions and activities that most will never know of. All this time, we have been observing your physical and mental prowess. You do not cower in the face of danger or bend with the force of fear. For this, you have been selected for promotion. You are no longer an Agent, Luke. From now on you will be the director of those working in your unit - a group of 75 people, I believe. You will be responsible for assigning those agents work, missions, and training as you see fit, and at the end of each day you will send a report of these things to me. As director, you also have the ability to approve new agents directly, without my approval."  
"Thank you, sir," I said. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Well, that's all I had to tell you, Director, the rest of your new job's assignments and requirements will be sent to you by tomorrow morning. You are free to go home now. We have already found a replacement for Agent Chase's partner, so you do not need to worry about that."  
I thanked him again and stood up. He blindfolded me and asked his assistant to take me back to room 39, where I could leave the building.

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

When Luke so flatly rejected the idea of us being together, I realized how much I had been attached to him. I felt something shatter within me, and it had to be my heart, didn't it? I held in most of my tears, but I couldn't get any of my work done. I saw the pile of papers on Luke's desk and felt that strange feeling that always took hold of me around him. I had never been able to figure out what it was, but now I was sure I knew.

It took the unexpected news of Luke's promotion to snap me out of my reverie. He had been promoted to director of the unit, which was basically the entire building. It only made up one unit because not all agents trained in the same place - there were disguised buildings like this, probably, worldwide.

Since I was now partnerless, they had gotten me a new partner - I didn't know who it was, but he/she would be arriving tomorrow. I laughed to myself at the idea that they were trying to replace Luke. As if. The thought of his name forced open a rush of tears and, sobbing quietly, I dropped my head on my papers, soaking them, but not caring.

"Are you okay?" I heard someone - Percy - ask.

"Yes," I said, trying to hide my tears. "I'm fine, leave me alone."

He nodded and faded away, obviously convinced that I was not fine.

I stopped crying at stared at my hands for years, it seemed. I got up and packed together all my stuff. If Luke could skip work whenever he wanted, I could go home early once. I rushed out to the worried glances of other agents, and a concerned look in Percy's eyes. I gave him a steely glare and ran outside, where I saw Luke getting into his car and driving away, purposely not looking at me even though he saw me. I ran to my apartment as fast as I could, glad that it was raining because the rain hid my tears from curious strangers.

 **(Third Person POV)**

A tall person, hidden in the shadows of the trees, walked rapidly to a small old house, holding an envelope marked "US Mail". The house was abandoned and tucked away in a dark corner of the woods where no one had gone for ages - or so it seemed. Once inside the house, the person turned on the lights and switched on the Wi-Fi - because the house actually wasn't so old and abandoned. It wasn't even a house at all. It was more of a lair.

The person pulled out a laptop from seemingly thin air, looked repeatedly at documents that were inside the envelope, and typed something into a strange interface on the computer. Within seconds, information appeared on the screen, and the person smiled. The person heaved the floorboards off, placed the laptop under them and plugged it in (because the not so old lair with electricity and Wi-Fi also had outlets). The person replaced the floorboards. The lair became an old abandoned house again when the lights were turned off and all traces of human interference were destroyed.

The person left, hidden by the shadows of the trees, still with the folder but with a new series of thoughts - the person would, in a matter of days, have enough information to bring the CIA to its knees.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **A/N: I really don't have an excuse for not updating in forever, so instead of pretending to have one I'll just get on with this chapter….**

 **(Third Person POV)**

The phone rang in the apartment across from Percy and Annabeth's room.

"Hello?" asked the person who answered the call. "Who is this?"

A deep voice replied, "Cut the formalities. You know who I am, and you know very well why I'm calling you."  
"The phone test?" the receiver asked, sighing.

"Obviously. He's in his apartment - I saw him go in. But is he sleeping?"

There was a pause as the receiver checked a monitor. "Yes.." the receiver said hesitantly.

"You don't sound sure," said the caller.

"I am sure," the receiver said.

The caller hung up and conducted the test.

 **(Percy's POV)**

I hadn't meant to get Luke angry, but I was more worried about the fact that Annabeth had run home crying. She didn't seem like the emotional type, but I guess everyone has their limits and someone had broken hers. I went back to my apartment worried that day, and as much as I hoped to see Annabeth there I knew she would be locked in her room, letting out whatever she was holding inside. Since I could do nothing about it today, I decided to go to bed - but the incessant thunder and rain made it hard to sleep.

I rolled around in my sheets, trying to sleep, but all my thoughts and the storm made it impossible. Suddenly I heard a strange beeping noise coming from my cellphone. I stared at it. The screen was flashing on and off for each beep. The beeps started coming faster. Paranoid that my phone had somehow turned into a time bomb, I threw it across the room as hard as I could. It hit a wall at high speed and was smashed to pieces. The beeping stopped and I slowly walked over to the remains of my phone. The screen was completely destroyed and almost everything had fallen apart. But then I saw the strangest thing...a small, black device that was emitting faint beeping noises had been pushed out the headphone jack. Soon the beeping stopped entirely and it imploded in on itself, but I knew what it was from my spy training.

And that's how I figured out my phone had been bugged.

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

When I woke up, I was glad that I had finally gotten over the whole Luke thing...at least, I hoped. But he had been promoted, so chances were I wouldn't have to see him as much. I realized I had been rude to Percy yesterday, and I wanted to apologize. When I walked into Athens Architecture, Inc., I saw a brown-haired girl with warm brown eyes standing awkwardly by my desk. I went over to her and she smiled at me.

"Hi," she said sweetly, "Uh - I'm Piper McClean. Um - when I found out about this whole spy thing the higher-ups said they had an empty space and I could fill it."  
"So you're my new partner?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"That's cool. I'm Annabeth Chase."  
"So who am I replacing?"

My eyes glazed over and I answered a little coldly, "I'd rather not talk about that."

Yikes. I guess I still wasn't over it.

"Sorry," I hastened to say, "I was just -"  
"It's fine," said Piper, "Everyone has things they need to keep to themselves."  
I smiled at her appreciatively and we sat down. I like this Piper McClean. I think that we're going to be good friends.

 _-Time passes-_

Piper and I had just finished lunch when the intercom crackled on. The urgent voice of a man I'd never heard before spoke through the speaker.

"This is an announcement of the utmost importance. My name is Dionysus Wilson, the head of this agency, and I require your undivided attention."  
There was a pause and a sudden rush of silence. My heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

"Through certain sources we have learned of a breach of information. I need everyone, immediately, to destroy all information on your computers. Shred all papers, and Directors, report to room 39. Updated information will be provided when possible. Now hurry. Time is of the essence. We cannot risk more information being stolen."

The intercom clicked off and I had a minor panic attack. I looked around me and everyone was in shock. Piper had jumped up and yelled, "Well? What're we waiting for? Now where's the shredder?"

Her voice had brought us all to our senses and we frantically started destroying everything. I located the "erase" button on my computer and pushed it. A bar came up with the words "Deleting all information...1% complete." In three minutes, my computer had been totally erased.

 **(Percy's POV)**

Once I heard the announcement, I began going through papers to shred, and as my heart rate decreased, I began examining the room. I noticed two suspicious things:

1\. That Jason looked relieved,

And

2\. That when I looked through the door, I saw Luke, a Director, running into a room that was most certainly not room 39.

 **(Piper's POV)**

After I finished shredding all the papers at my desk, Annabeth helped me find the "erase" button on my computer. I pressed it and saw a bar come up on my screen marking the progress of the deletion. There was nothing I could do except help someone else, but everyone else had already finished their shredding and was moving onto erasing their computers.

Almost immediately after we were done shredding, a pop-up noise came out of one of the workers' computers. Following suit, the noise and a pop-up appeared on all of our computers except Annabeth's and a blond-haired boy's. "Deleting failed," the pop-up said. It was weird that it had happened on most of the computers - maybe so many devices being erased caused the process to slow down?

It turns out, that was not the case. After ten seconds, the pop-up disappeared and the computer screens went black. Only Annabeth's was still on. Then she realized something.

"Guys," Annabeth said slowly, "Did you all shred your papers first?"

We nodded in unison, except the blond boy.

"Well I didn't," she said, "And my computer erased fully. My computer is still on. I think...I think that someone has managed to stop your computers from being erased. I did mine immediately, so there wasn't enough time to stop mine. But everyone else...besides Jason...you guys did the shredding first. That gave the hacker time to block the deletion."

I looked at Annabeth, stunned. My first day just kept getting worse. As much as I didn't want to believer her, her argument made perfect sense.

"Well," said the blond-haired boy, who I guessed was Jason, "Let's just hope people from other units had more sense than we did. Or else the hacker still gets most of our information."

"Annabeth and Jason are right," said a black-haired boy. "We should've all erased our computers first."

The intercom turned on again.

"Agents, it seems that almost half of the information stored on our computers has failed to be erased. Many of the computers are permanently shut off, but we believe the information still exists. There is nothing else any of you can do, but considering the emergency we are currently in, I have to require that you all stay here for tonight. A temporary sleeping quarters has been set up in the field, but in all truthfulness, I don't think any of you want to sleep. Not with this happening."

The head of the Agency announced the last few sentences almost to himself, but they applied to all of us.

We all looked at each other, panicking again.

I caught Jason's eye but as he turned his head I swear I could tell he was hiding something.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **(Percy's POV)**

After the announcement, the entire room panicked. It got even worse when Annabeth spoke up.

"Guys," she said in a quiet, almost fearful voice, "The person who shut off all the computers...the only way to do that is through the heavily guarded computer room. The person has to be in this building now, and to be able to get past the guards they would need to be very high-up."

A successive shudder passed through the room. The person was in the building.

"Annabeth," I said. "Do you know who has access to the computer room?"  
"Only the head of the Agency and the Directors of the units."  
"Which means it has to be one of them?"  
"Yes. Well - no, not necessarily. If a tech savvy person managed to-"  
My mind cut off the rest of her statement. The second she told me that Directors had access to the room, everything clicked. Luke hadn't been going to room 39 like the head of the agency had told him to.

Then Luke ran into the room.

"Agents," he said, "After consulting with the head of the Agency, I have been asked to make sure everyone stays where they are. Apparently whoever shut off the computers is still in the building, and it needs to be secured before anyone can leave their office. So I need to lock the doors, okay?"  
Everyone nodded blankly as Luke informed us he had to meet with the Directors from the other units. As he left, he shot me a cold glare and locked the doors.

Everyone else thought we were being secured. I knew we were being trapped. Luke hadn't been meeting with other Directors, and he wasn't going to. I didn't know where he was going now, but it couldn't be good. Everything finally made sense about Luke. From that secret meeting I had almost walked into my first week until today, I realized Luke wasn't looking for the person who had shut down the computers. He _was_ the person who had shut down the computers. He's probably the one who bugged my phone, too.

I didn't have time to tell anyone about my discovery. Instead I ran for the door and tried to open it, but sure enough, it was locked. I took a deep breath and broke a window that led into the hallway. I heard people asking just what did I think I was doing and yelling at me to stop before I got us all killed by the computer-shut-down-guy. I climbed out the window and ran in the direction I had seen Luke going.

Suddenly, a wave of some chemical hit me, and I fell down, gasping for breath. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a gun pointed at my head.

- _Time passes_ -

When I woke up, I found myself tied to a chair with thick black rope. I wasn't blindfolded or gagged, but when I saw someone in a dark mask with a gun, I didn't feel like talking anyway.

"I've been expecting you," said the masked person in a low, icy voice.

"You can cut the act off," I said. "I know it's you, Luke."

The person took off the mask, and Luke's face was revealed.

"I knew you followed me," he said, "the mask was just precautionary."

"Why are you stealing information?" I asked.

He smirked at me but didn't answer.

"You're a traitor," I said. "You've betrayed this whole Agency."

"No," said Luke. "I would only be a traitor if I turned on the Agency. I never supported it in the first place."  
"But you _said_ you did. You took an oath saying you did. So you _are_ a traitor."

Luke looked at me mockingly.

"Let me ask you a question, Jackson. What do you remember of the day you were kidnapped?"

I was silent. The fact was, I didn't remember anything.

"It was me who kidnapped you," said Luke. "Don't you remember?"  
I didn't, but now that I knew, I wasn't surprised.

"Then why did you come to rescue me?" I asked.

Luke laughed. "It was all part of the plan, Jackson. All part of the plan. I wasn't coming to rescue you. I was coming to get someone else killed."

Smiling at my shock, he continued.

"The guy who you know as The Boss was my biggest obstacle to becoming Director. He never really liked me, and he always thought there was something suspicious about me."  
"At least someone was sensible," I muttered.

"See," said Luke, ignoring me, "I had to make up a mission that I knew he would go on. That way, it wouldn't seem suspicious if he got injured."  
I stared at Luke, realizing what he was saying.

"Yes," Luke nodded. "I was the one who shot him. Although, if he hadn't died in the infirmary, I suppose I would have had to resort to poison."  
My heart started beating faster. How could this guy talk about killing someone so lightheartedly? I suddenly felt like he wouldn't hesitate to do the same to me.

Luke seemed to sense my fear.

He put his gun away and said, "I have no reason to use my weapon. Besides, I might be able to use you for something."  
"What do you mean?" I said. "I would never do anything you asked me to do."  
"You would be surprised," said Luke, "what people would do to protect someone they love."

And with that, Luke left the room, turning off the light and locking the door. His last words had been engraved on my mind. I only knew of one person that I loved - my mom. But she had disappeared a long time ago. Was it possible that Luke knew where she was? Then I knew what Luke said was true. I would do anything - almost anything - to get her back.

 **(Third Person POV)**

A girl sat in the corner of a large room furnished with a bed, table, chair, refrigerator, and dresser. There was a door that opened to a bathroom. All other doors were triple-locked, and although the lights were bright, there were no windows.

The girl was free to move around and do whatever she wanted, but there was nothing to do. Even if there was, she wouldn't have done it, because there was no way she would degrade herself low enough to do something that her captor approved of. Soon the girl heard the sound of locks unlocking. She stood up but did not attempt any other movement. When the blond-haired, muscular boy walked in she gave him a deathly glare that most other people would have run away from.

"What do you want?" she growled, concentrating all of her contempt for him in her eyes.

Without a word, the boy shoved a passed-out woman into the room.

"She'll wake up soon enough," he said. "Then you can have company." With that, he walked away and locked the doors again.

Immediately, the girl ran over to the woman. Her heart was beating steadily and soon her eyes flickered open.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked.

The woman nodded emptily. She got up and began looking around the room.

"Are you looking for something?" asked the girl.

The woman nodded again.

"Well you won't find it here. There isn't anything here except what's in plain sight. Believe me, if there was anything else I would have found it by now."

The woman sat on the floor and put her head in her hands.

"What were you looking for?" asked the girl.

"My son," the woman sighed.

"Your son?"  
"I haven't seen him in three years."

"You're not alone."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I haven't seen my brother for a while either."

The girl was not a hug-person, but when she saw how broken the woman was, she felt the urge to embrace her.

"Do you know why we're here?" the woman asked.

"No," said the girl. "All I know is that I woke up in this room one day a few months ago, I think. That guy who brought you in here was the same one who brought me. The only thing that I've done these past few months is eat, sleep, and think."

"That's all I've been doing for the past three years."

"What?"  
"I've been stuck in rooms like this for three years. They've constantly been transporting me to different locations, and now I'm here."  
"Who is 'they'?"

"The people that...kidnapped me, I guess. We're kidnapped, right?"  
"Yeah."

The woman sighed as if she already knew the answer but was hoping it would be different.

"Well, if you don't mind, I think I could use some sleep. Real sleep, I mean, not that chloroform-induced sleep."

"That's fine. You can use the bed," said the girl. "I don't use it anyway. The only reason it's made is because I've never touched it. I refuse to use anything except the food."

The woman smiled slightly. "You remind me of my son," she said. "You're both rebellious. Just be careful. It might get you into trouble someday."  
"Not more trouble than I'm already in," said the girl, smiling.

"I'll just sleep on the floor," said the woman. "If that bed hasn't been used for months, I won't be the first to use it."

When the woman fell asleep, the girl sat down on the floor next to her, relieved that she finally had someone to keep her company. She had been lonely those past few months.

Suddenly the girl jumped up. She realized that now, with two people who both desperately wanted freedom, escape was an option. She was sure that the next time the blond-haired boy came in to restock the refrigerator, she and the woman could overpower him and get out the door. It would be so easy...


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

The entire room was in pandemonium after Percy jumped out the window. I wanted to stop him, but by the time I got to the window he was long gone.

"Guys," I said, "I think someone should go look for him."  
Everyone looked around worriedly.

"I'll do it," I said. "He's going to get himself into a lot of trouble, and who knows what could happen to him if the person who shut down the computers finds him?"

Piper stepped up.

"I agree," she said. "But I'll go with you, because it's not safe to have you wandering around this place alone. We're stronger in numbers."

"Well," I said, "there isn't anything we can do to prepare for this so we might as well go now."

Piper and I climbed out the window and ran as quietly as possible in the direction we thought Percy was going, but we couldn't find a trace of him. As we went down the dark hallways, I heard a long, low noise that sounded as if something heavy was being dragged. I increased my speed just enough to see someone tall with blonde hair rounding the corner. Luke? He was the only person still in the hallways that I knew of. He was probably still locking doors.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, Piper and I realized it would be impossible to find Percy. Besides, we had tried our luck for a long time, and something told me that I didn't want to be in the same place as a potential criminal. We decided to go back. The search would have to resume when we had more people, more supplies, and more information.

We arrived back at our office, and it wasn't hard to tell which one was ours because it had a broken window. But just as Piper was climbing back in through it, I noticed something. The door wasn't locked. I tried the handle, and sure enough, it was open. Immediately I went into panic mode. Had someone unlocked the door? And if so, how?

I opened the door and was received with many shocked expressions.

"Hey guys," I said. "Why did Luke unlock the door?"  
"What do you mean?" Jason said. "He didn't. No one did. It's been locked this whole time, and Luke hasn't even been here since he locked the doors."

"Well someone had to have unlocked it," I said. "How else could I get in?"

"Maybe it wasn't even locked in the first place," said Piper.

"Yes it was," I replied. "That's why Percy broke the window, remember? Because the door was locked."

Piper's eyes went wide. "From the inside," she said. "The doors were locked from the inside."

"So..." I said slowly. "So the doors were locked from the inside, but not the outside. That means _we_ were the ones prevented from leaving. No one was prevented from entering."

"Luke was lying when he said he was securing us," Jason said. "He was trapping us in here instead."

Suddenly I felt like Luke was right next to me. I was confused, but then I realized what it was. Long ago, when I first met Luke, I had had an indecipherable feeling. Every time I was near him, the feeling returned, and every time I was on some mission, the feeling was there. For the longest time, I had thought it was a feeling of needing him to be with me. Now, though, I know I was wrong, because now I realize that the only times that feeling ever truly came were times of danger. That feeling, that gut instinct, was me sensing that danger was so near. That wherever Luke went, danger followed. And not only danger, but suspicion.

Luke said he was keeping us safe.

Luke locked us in but left open a way for others to get in.

Luke was a liar.

Luke purposely put us in danger.

It didn't take much thinking to convince myself that Luke was the person who shut down the computers and stole the information. The problem was: would I get anyone else to believe me?

"Hey Piper?" Jason asked, snapping everyone out of their thoughts.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Can I talk to you for a second...in private?"

"...Sure."

 **(Jason's POV)**

"I have something really important to tell you," I said to Piper.

She nodded.

"But, uh, I kind of need to show you it too. So you kind of need to follow me."

She nodded again and I reached my hand out the door window, opening it from the outside since the inside was still locked.

Piper looked a bit hesitant to follow, but she seemed to know that she had to do it. We walked in silence toward the men's bathroom. I looked around me and knew I was taking a big risk doing this, but I was tired of holding the secret.

With my fourth finger, I touched a spot on the wall near the floor. Then I pressed my entire hand against it, and a small screen materialized and I typed in a thirteen-character password. The top layer of the wall, which was very thin, slid away and a door was revealed. I saw Piper's shocked expression as we proceeded in. I made sure the door closed and typed in the another password to get the wall to slide back into place.

"What is this?" whispered Piper, turning the light and revealing a large room with computer screens built into the walls.

"You don't have to whisper," I said. "The walls are soundproof. At least, they are now."

"What is this?" she repeated louder.

"That's what I need to tell you."  
"Okay. I'll listen."

I took a deep breath and began telling Piper the story that I had never told anyone in my life. I didn't know why I picked her, but I felt like I could trust her.

"I first came here four years ago," I said. "For the longest time, nothing ever happened, but recently things here have been getting really bad. I've never told anyone this before… but I know who is doing this. I know who's stealing the information and in general wreaking havoc. It's Luke, Piper, it's Luke."  
"How do you know?"

"Because…"  
"Because why?"  
"Because I've been helping him."  
Piper stared at me like I was crazy. I knew what she was thinking: why would I tell the new girl that people barely knew that I was in on the plot to steal information?

"Are you expecting me to join you?" Piper asked, disgusted. "Did you think that just because I was new I would help you commit a crime?"

"Piper, please, listen to me. It's not what you think. I'm not trying to commit a crime. I mean, I know I did, but I didn't do it purposely. I mean, I did it purposely but I did it for a _good_ purpose. I mean -"  
"What are you trying to say?"

"I didn't have a choice. I had to help him."  
"There is literally no scenario that I can think of in which you would _have_ to help a criminal. Even if your life was on the line -"

"But that's the problem. Do you think I joined this Agency because I wasn't willing to risk my life? I've been facing the possibility of death for _years_. It's not _my_ life that I'm worried about - it's my sister's."

"What does your sister have to do with this?"  
I sighed. "About a year ago," I said, "I stumbled across Luke setting up a system of wires and cameras just outside this room. I questioned him, and he evaded answering, but he knew I was suspicious. A few months later, when I was walking down a hallway, I went unconscious under a cloud of gas. I woke up in a room, tied to a chair. Luke was there. He told me that I was going to be his partner in crime, considering he knew I was already suspicious of him. He wanted to make sure I didn't tell anyone before it was too late. Of course, I refused to participate in anything with him, but then he opened a door leading into another room. I saw my sister, Thalia, giving Luke a deathly glare. Luke closed the door and gave me an ultimatum: either I join him or my sister dies. So that's what I did, Piper. I couldn't let her die."

Piper looked at me sadly. "I think you did the right thing. But why are you telling me? Why not Annabeth or someone else?"

"Because you're new," I said. "And while I would trust Annabeth with a lot of things, I couldn't tell someone I've known for ages that I'm a traitor."

"But you're not a traitor! Actually, it's probably a good thing that you agreed to work with Luke! First, your sister is still alive, and second, now we have more information about Luke's plans! This is actually great, Jason! Let's go tell everyone else, you can file a report to the Head of the Agency or something."

"But wait," I said as Piper was running for the door.

"What?"  
"I still haven't told you what this room is for."  
She stared at me questioningly.

"Every time a new agent arrived, Luke and I set up a system of sound recorders and bugs in the home phone, apartment, and car of the agent. While agents aren't allowed to have cell phones, we know they all do anyway, so we bugged those, too."  
Piper looked at me, shocked.

"Oh," I said. "There are cameras too."

Piper looked deeply offended.

"We didn't set them up for you yet, though."  
I realized I probably sounded like a jerk. "Not that I want to," I added quickly. "In fact, I tried to sabotage Luke's system as often as I could, but that wasn't very often, because everything Luke does is foolproof."

"Okay," said Piper. "Obviously, I am deeply disturbed by this new development, but I think we should deal with the whole destroy-the-Agency-and-steal-all-its-information thing first. And we'll find a way to help your sister. So let's go. We need to tell everyone."

Piper and I exited the room and as Piper started running I made sure the wall sealed itself properly. I realized how free I felt to have that burden off my chest.

 **A/N: Hey guys! So from now on, I think that whenever I write an author's note I'll put it at the bottom so you could just skip it if you want. Anyway, I'm soooooo sorry I didn't update last week, but I had finals so I was kind of busy studying. But now that they're over school is over too, so I'll be able to update more often!**

 **Also, this is really off topic, but has anyone ever read The Count of Monte Cristo? It's my favorite book (besides the Percy Jackson series of course), so you definitely should read it if you haven't! And does anyone have any good book suggestions for the summer? Thanks so much for reading this! Have a great week!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **(Third Person POV)**

The girl had waited patiently for the woman to wake up, and when she finally did, the girl jumped up.

"Do you want to escape?" she whispered.

The woman nodded frantically.

"Well, now that there are two of us, we can overpower that guy when he comes in here. I've personally never tried to escape, and if you haven't either, then we have the element of surprise on our side."

"I'll do it," said the woman. "I'm tired of spending three years locked up."

"I don't see much planning that we can do on our part, just to wait behind the door and knock him out when he comes in."

"That sounds like our only option, so we're stuck doing it even if it's a bad one. But nothing is worse than being kept prisoner, so it's worth a try."

The two females hid behind the door and waited for hours in silence.

Finally, they heard the sound of the first outside door opening. They heard footsteps, each one growing louder, and their heart beats getting faster. Then there was the sound of a key turning, and the door they were hiding behind opened.

Without looking to see who it was, the girl stepped out and punched the person who had walked in as hard as she could in the face. Surprise was indeed on her side, as was her strength, and the person crumpled to the floor. She didn't stop to look at him, she just called out "Come on!" to the woman and ran. It didn't take her a while to notice that the woman was not following her.

"What's wrong?" she said. "This is our chance to escape! He's not going to fall for it again!"

Turning around, she saw the woman sink to the floor and her eyes water with tears.

"Are you okay?"

"P-P-Percy," the woman wept.

"What?"

The girl looked down and realized the person she had knocked out was not the blond-haired boy who had locked them in that room. This boy had black hair, and looked strikingly like the woman. The girl realized he must be her son.

Soon the boy got up. After rubbing his face to alleviate the pain that the girl's punch had left on his face, he saw the woman.

"Mom?" he said, stunned, and he hugged her as if she had come back from the dead.

The girl saw this embrace, and it melted her heart as the mother and son were reunited after three years. She was reminded of how much she missed her brother, the only person who was there for her after their parents had died.

"Um...guys," the girl said eventually. "I don't want to ruin this moment, but can we get out of this place first, before it's too late?"

As it turned out, it _was_ too late. The black-haired boy, Percy, hadn't gotten into the room by himself. He had been admitted in by the blond-haired boy, who was quietly waiting for the right moment to step in.

When he entered, the girl whipped around and her heart broke into a million pieces. Their chance of escape was back to zero.

"So," said the boy to Percy, "I wasn't lying, was I?"

Percy clung to his mother and glared at the boy.

"You're evil, Luke," he said. "You are _pure_ evil. And you're never going to separate us again."

Luke turned to the girl. "You can leave now," he said. "I don't need you anymore, so you can go."

And with that, Luke went up to Percy and his mother and started talking all about his loaded gun in his back pocket, and how he wasn't afraid to use it.

The girl's anger simmered in her and, ignoring the open door, she walked up to Luke, kicked him in the shin as hard as she could, and grabbed his gun, which he hadn't been lying about, out of his back pocket. For a second, he was surprised, but when the girl pointed the gun at his face, he smirked.

"It's activated by touch," he said. "It only recognizes my fingerprints. So your threats are useless."

He reached out to grab the gun, which he succeeded in doing, but at that moment Percy punched him in the chest. As strong as Luke was, Percy's passion-driven fist was stronger, and Luke fell to the floor.

Without hesitating, Percy seized Luke's gun and the key ring that he had in a pocket.

The girl, Percy, and his mother rushed out of the room and Percy locked both doors.

As it turned out, the room was located underneath the Athens Architecture, Inc. building, so Percy was able to lead the way through the hallways. The three ran so fast that Usain Bolt's world records were dangerously close to being broken.

Finally, they reached their destination: two open doors with a broken window in one of them. Percy was surprised that they were open - they were locked last time he checked. As the three of them entered the room, they saw everyone staring at them, wide-eyed. Piper and Jason, who looked they had just finished saying something important, turned around. Jason jumped up and ran over to the girl, who was standing in the doorway, shocked.

"Thalia!" he cried, embracing her to make sure this was really happening, that she wasn't just a vision.

Waves of astonishment enveloped the room. After Piper and Jason had made their big announcement about Luke, Percy had returned with a gun, a woman, and a girl who Jason immediately ran up to and hugged. Percy, his mom, and Jason wanted nothing more than to find a quiet place to enjoy the company of long-lost family, but although Thalia would have liked this, she realized that now was not the time.

"What's happening?" asked a confused Annabeth.

Percy stepped up. "Luke is the enemy. He's the -"

"We know," someone cut in. "Jason and Piper told us. But what happened with you?"  
"Well," said Percy. "I've been suspicious about Luke ever since I came here, and I've seen him going to rooms he shouldn't even know exist. I decided to follow him, but he knocked me out with some chemical and tied me up in a room, where he basically confirmed that he was the bad guy. Then he said he knew where my...my mom was, and I didn't believe him, so he showed me. She was in a locked room with another girl, and that girl -"  
"My name is Thalia," said the girl.

"Right. So Thalia grabbed Luke's gun and I punched him and then we locked him in the room and came here."

"And," added Jason, "Thalia is my sister."

The series of events unfolded so quickly that no one knew what to do, or where to start.

"Well," said Annabeth. "I guess we should inform the other units and the head of the Agency. And someone should also check on Luke, because I've known him for years and he probably already is planning to escape."

It was agreed that three agents would go to deliver the news, three would stay behind and watch the office, and Annabeth and Piper would make sure Luke stayed where he was. Thalia insisted on going with them, which also dragged Jason in, because he didn't want to lose his sister again.

 **(Luke's POV)**

After I regained consciousness, I found myself locked in the empty room. I was expecting the girl to take her chance and leave while she could, but instead she decided to attack. It was poor planning on my part to turn my back on someone who wanted revenge. And Jackson was a lot stronger than I had estimated. Anger empowers people, I guess. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

I looked around and saw that my gun was gone, but it didn't matter because I never carried only one weapon. Not that I needed a weapon at the moment - I could get one after I got out of this place.

I climbed onto the refrigerator and touched an inconspicuous spot on the wall, which opened a small hatch on the floor. The hatch revealed a screen, which scanned my fingerprint and prompted me to type in a password, which I did. Then the hatch widened and a hole appeared in the floor. I climbed down the ladder that was leaning on the hole walls, and when I reached the bottom I flipped a switch and the hole closed.

Getting out of that room was too easy. They didn't really think they could trap me in the room I built, did they?

 **(Third Person POV)**

Thalia led the way to the room where Luke was being held in, and Annabeth, Piper, and Jason followed. It took a while to navigate the maze of hallways, because Thalia had been paying more attention to her successful escape than to where she was going. When they finally reached the first door, Thalia unlocked it with the key Percy had given her. It was a good sign that the door was locked. That meant no one had escaped through it. Thalia hurried to unlock the other door, and she couldn't wait to see the look on Luke's face as he got a taste of his own medicine.

She opened the door excitedly, but that's when she noticed the problem.

"Guys," she said, "The room is empty. Luke's not here."

 **A/N: Hey guys! Sorry if this chapter is shorter than normal, I had to write it in a hurry. Anyway, as usual, thanks for reading! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **(Third Person POV)**

Once again, there was general havoc when news spread that Luke had escaped. By then, the head of the Agency and every other agent had been notified of the identity of the criminal. The building was locked down and all doors and windows were guarded, and there were rumors going around that the director of the FBI was on her way to discuss the recent events and aid in the search for Luke.

Ever since Luke was exposed, the trust level among the agents had plummeted. If one of the oldest, most successful agents turned bad, who could be trusted? Everyone in Luke's unit was questioned, especially Annabeth, who had been his partner. Percy, his mom, Jason, and Thalia were called to room 32 over the loudspeaker to meet with the heads of the CIA and FBI and tell their stories. Jason's information was especially valuable, since he had been helping Luke in various ways for a few months. But even this information was only limited to Jason's knowledge of the recording devices. It was eventually decided that the Athens Architecture, Inc. building would have to be abandoned. Luke probably knew secrets about it that even the head of the Agency didn't know. So, the loudspeaker crackled on to announce the evacuation.

"Attention. This is Dionysus Wilson, head of the Agency. As we all know, it has been revealed that Luke Castellan has been attempting to steal information from this Agency, and he probably has darker motives still. In short, we all must leave this building. Our partners at the FBI have offered a temporary shelter. I am requesting that all agents destroy their computers, and report to the field where physical training is held. And if you have any personal possessions with you, bring them with you."

The intercom clicked off and the sound of shattering glass resounded through the hallways as agents found creative ways to break their computers. When the destroying was done and everyone had made their way to the field, a quick attendance was taken and everyone was accounted for. The head of the Agency, Mr. Wilson, stood at the front of the crowd on a makeshift platform.

He said, "Your Directors will lead you to the train. Each unit has two cabins. You will not be returning to this building again - we may have to have it demolished. You will be transported to a new facility where your work will focus mainly on tracking down and capturing Luke Castellan and anyone working with him."

After a silence, he continued in a grave voice, "And if anyone here sees fit to join forces with the enemy, you will deeply regret that decision."

He nodded at the group of unit Directors who had gathered together, and they all went back to their respective units. He himself went to Luke's former unit and led them through a door well concealed in the wall. A dark tunnel continued for what seemed like miles, but eventually a large underground train could be seen. The agents realized they were walking on railroad tracks.

The cabins in the train were labeled for the units, and while boys and girls were supposed to separate themselves, everyone was too worried to care about the rules. Percy and his mom and Jason and Thalia had to go to the front of the train because there was not enough space for all of them in the two cabins, and they refused to be split up.

Soon the train started moving, and after a few hours the train came aboveground. Unbeknownst to those onboard, the train had taken a slight turn off couse. Though the shift was an honest mistake made by an unexperienced conductor, it was a dangerous shift.

As life continued normally in Washington DC, a group of terrified spies-in-training were being taken to a place much more unstable than the one they were leaving.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **(Third Person POV)**

The conductor realized he was going the wrong way. The track led him underground, which made him remember that he shouldn't be going underground for another hour. The conductor racked his brain for a way to turn around, but by then it was too late.

A siren suddenly started going off and the tunnel was lit with a bright red light. A robot voice somewhere started screaming "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!"

A huge steel wall collided on the track just behind the train, sending enormous sound waves throughout the cabins. Seconds later, another wall just like the previous one slammed down in front of the train. There was only a small distance between that door and the train, and the panicked conductor knew he couldn't brake in time. Nevertheless, he tried.

The train's brakes screeched loudly, and for a second it looked like it might stop, but the wall was too close. The front of the train hit the wall with force that sent the conductor flying backward. Suddenly there was a grating sound and the wall the train had crashed into was raised. Twenty masked people covered from head to toe in black and carrying machine guns rushed into sight. One of them, holding a megaphone, said,

"Open the doors of the train and drop all your weapons! If so, we will take you peacefully - otherwise we will detonate your entire train."

The twenty machine gun-people stepped aside to reveal a pile of explosives.

Then they charged. Finding the door not open, they shot through it. But as they rushed through the compartments, they saw nothing - only black desolation and small, dying fires in the cabins nearest the front of the train. Confused, the machine-gunners left the train just as a figure emerged from behind the explosives.

"Well?" said the figure. "Who are they? Why haven't you captured them? Did they resist?"

"Actually, sir," said the man who had spoken through the megaphone, "there wasn't even anyone _in_ there. Only the conductor, who is either dead or is about to be."

"What do you _mean_ there isn't anyone in there?" said the figure, raising his voice. "Of course there's someone there."

Megaphone man shrugged. "See for yourself," he said.

The figure, angry, marched toward the train. He didn't even stop to look at the conductor, whose head was bleeding heavily. He tore through all the compartments, and, finding no one, shot randomly around the train with his machine gun. Finding nothing, he was about to leave, but just then he heard a small noise coming from...the conductor.

"Castellan?" the conductor said, staring at the figure.

The figure smirked. "Well, well, if it isn't my old boss, the head of the Central Idiotic Agency. I must say, you aren't looking too good. By the way, where is everyone? This train looks pretty empty to me."

"And just _what_ makes you think I would tell you _that_ information?" said the conductor.

"You're right," said Luke. "I already know everything from you that I'll ever need to know. Which means you're useless." Luke pointed his gun at the conductor.

"I _trusted_ you, Luke," said the conductor. "Look how you've ended up. You could've been-"

The sound of a gunshot rang through the train and Luke walked away, satisfied.

He went up to the masked machine gunners and said,

"You were right. No one's there. Now set up the explosives to go off in, say, 2 hours. That'll give you enough time to get away from here. Also, bring that wall down in front of the train again. Now don't mess anything up - I need this train gone by tomorrow morning."

An hour after the attackers had left, Annabeth whispered to Piper, who was crouched next to her, "Do you think it's safe?"

"No," said Piper, "but we'll suffocate to death in here if we stay any longer. I say it's worth risking capture."  
"Should we _really_ risk it? A great man once said that it's better to die on our feet than live on our knees. We shouldn't give in to capture so easily."

"Well, Annabeth, you can quote your 'great men' all you like, but I'm sitting here dying of oxygen deprivation and I don't know about you, but I would like to reach the age of 20. So I say we leave."

Annabeth gave in. "Fine," she said, "let's go."

With that, the two girls reached up and pushed open the door. A wave a fresh air came in and the girls climbed up out of the secret compartment. They helped pull up the other agents from their unit who were hidden in the same place. Then they went around to the other cabins, knocking on certain parts of the floor and telling their fellow agents to come out. All around the train, Annabeth and Piper could see that there were no more attackers, but the attackers that had come before had left bullet holes riddled across the ceiling and walls. When they reached the front of the train, they saw Dionysus Wilson, the conductor, with a pool of blood surrounding his head. Fearing the worst, Annabeth checked him for a pulse. There was none.

The other agents began filing in, and, seeing the body, panicked. It was the first time many of them had experienced death. Some of the older agents cried, having known the dead man for many years. But there was another problem, too.

"Um, guys," said Percy, clutching on to his mom as if his life depended on her, "I don't really want to be callous or something, but shouldn't we leave? There's nothing we can do for him now, and those people might come back any second. And also...doesn't anyone else hear that ticking? I think it's a time bomb."

Immediately the agents hurried off the train, only to discover that Percy was right - there _was_ a time bomb, and they were trapped with it and the train in between two colossal steel doors.

"Face it," Thalia mumbled. "We're all dead."

No one admitted it, but everyone knew she was right. How could you escape a time bomb?

 **(Mystery Agent's POV)**

It was then I decided to step up. I was pretty sure no one knew who I was, but I _did_ have some experience with explosives.

"Maybe I could help," I said.

Everyone turned to stare at me. Yeah. They definitely didn't know who I was.

"How?" asked a girl with blond hair - Annabeth - I think.

"I know a thing or two about things that blow other things up."  
"You mean bombs."  
"Duh. But that's beside the point - we're wasting time here complaining."  
"So what _is_ the point?"

"I can dismantle the bomb."  
"But that won't help us, we'll still be trapped!"

"Fine," I said, doing some quick thinking. "I can decrease the power of the bomb so it blows up one of the doors, and then we can get out."  
"But we'll be blown up too!"  
"Not if we stand behind the train. The explosion won't be powerful enough to reach us."

"That is totally not going to work."  
"Well standing here doing nothing is _most definitely_ not going to work either!" I shouted, losing patience.

"I think it's a good idea," said a blond haired boy.

"Me too," said someone else.

All around, agents started voicing their approval.

"We're going to die anyway," Thalia said. Wow. Way to stay positive.

I turned to Annabeth and raised my eyebrows.

"Fine," she said. "But please don't get us killed."

The agents watched as I rushed toward the bomb. Well that's another thing I can cross off my bucket list - running straight at a ticking time bomb. But I didn't have a second to lose, and since there was no clock on the bomb there was no way to tell when it might go off. I didn't really know how to reduce the power of the bomb - defuse it I could do any day, but only lower its _power_ \- that was something I had never done. But, hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.

After about ten minutes of frantic work, I was ready to try out the bomb. I had no idea what I had done to it, but it had to work, it just had to. Since I didn't want to wait for the time bomb to blow up by itself, I connected a wire to the bomb and put it right by the steel wall that had fallen behind the train. Then I directed all the agents to follow me, and we squeezed in between the front of the train and the other wall. I crossed my fingers,hoping against hope that this would work.

With a deep breath I lit the fuse. The spark struggled for a few seconds. I was about to give it a boost when the bomb's ticking started going crazy. I knew that, at any second, the bomb would go off, and if the spark reached the bomb, it would cause a double explosion. I gulped. In a split second, I knew that if I had reduced the power of the bomb to what I had meant it to be, the double explosion would still kill us. I hadn't counted on the time bomb reaching its time limit, but I knew now that I should have. The spark started creeping along the wire, toward the bomb, which was seconds away from exploding. They would meet and we would all die. I closed my eyes. And then I did something desperate.

 **(Annabeth's POV)**

When I heard the bomb's ticking go haywire, I looked at the agent who claimed to be an expert on it. His face was draining color quickly, and he looked like he regretted something deeply. My heart beat faster and faster. Why did I trust this guy anyway? Clearly something was wrong, and now we were all going to die.

The spark that he had lit on the fuse began to travel down the wire. Suddenly, the "Bomb Expert" sprinted to the wire and stamped on it, putting out the spark. Just then, the ticking stopped and the bomb exploded. I screamed, but my scream was drowned out in the sound of the explosion. I closed my eyes and held on to the person nearest me. I didn't want to see myself, or anyone else, die.

In a second, it was all over. Apparently what Bomb Expert had done worked, because while there was a huge hole in the steel wall, I and the other agents were all in one whole piece. The only person who didn't seem to be okay was...Bomb Expert himself. He had been hit by a small fireball, which burned off half of his right sleeve and blackened his arm. He looked in pain, but he looked alive.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. "We can find you some ice or water or something. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?"  
"Geez," said Bomb Expert. "What are you, a doctor? A little fire never hurt anyone...I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't look okay."  
"I'm _fine_."  
"We're still going to get you some medical care."  
"I don't NEED medical care! I'm _fine_!" he yelled.

After a brief silence, I said, "What's your name anyway? Are you new? I don't remember seeing you before."

"I'm not new, I'm just not noticeable," he said. "As for my name, it's-" he smirked. "My name is Leo McShizzle."  
"McShizzle?"

"Yes, McShizzle, got a problem with that?"

"No, but - thank you, by the way. You saved us. And sorry for being rude before."

"Seriously? I almost killed us all. I don't think you should be thanking me for that," he said.

"Are you kidding me? You _saved_ us all!"

"Whatever," he said. "At least I can cross another thing off my bucket list."

"What - saving people?"  
He grinned. "No. Convincing someone that my last name is McShizzle."

 **A/N: Guys, I am** _ **so**_ **sorry that I haven't updated in months. And also that the last chapter was so short and bad :/ . I can't really make any excuses, I'm just...really sorry.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **(Third Person POV)**

Luke sat in a swivel chair in a brightly lit room. He had just returned from the train. For two hours, he sat, unmoving, thinking quietly. Then he heard an explosion, and he knew the deed was done. He was satisfied with knowing that the always-in-the-way Dionysus Wilson was gone, but something kept bugging him.

How had the train found his headquarters? He had taken every precaution to ensure no one in the world could find it, but the precautions had all failed. If it was just some random pedestrian, Luke would have felt safe, but the _head_ of the _CIA_ , his worst _enemy_? Even worse, Wilson had come alone - alone in a large train.

Something about it was very suspicious, and Luke would have tried to figure it out if he had the time. But he didn't, because he knew that people outside surely would have heard the explosion too, and they would contact the police. Luke could easily escape the police, but he wasn't at all confident in the abilities of his workers to do the same. If he left them there, they might crack. And besides, even if he _could_ get them all out, there would still be plenty of evidence of his secret organization left behind.

For the second time in his life, Luke felt trapped - trapped in a situation of his own making.

 **(Percy's POV)**

My first thought after the explosion was to get the heck out of the tunnel. But Annabeth, who took control of the situation (she had a way of doing that), insisted on staying.

"If we stay," she reasoned, "we may be able to find out where we are. There must be some really valuable information here - why else would there be a system designed to keep out intruders? Why else would someone try to _kill_ us with a _bomb_? I say some of us stay here and figure out what's going on."

"Great idea," said Thalia immediately. "I'll do it."

Jason, who didn't look eager to be separated from his sister again, volunteered next. Then came Piper and Leo, who didn't care that his arm was still injured. No one else stepped up. I sighed, knowing what I had to do.

"I'm in," I said.

"Anyone else?" asked Annabeth.

When the room was silent, she said,

"Okay. Whoever wants to leave should get out of here as soon as possible. Maybe cause some distractions to slow down the police, who are probably on their way now."

I looked over at my mom, who was smiling at me sadly.

"I love you, mom," I whispered.

"I love you too," she said, as she followed the other agents out of the tunnel.

* * *

"So what do we do?" I asked. "There's still a huge steel wall in front of us, and we don't have any explosives to get rid of it."

"I can try to make another bomb," Leo suggested. "And blow up that wall, too."

"I don't think we should risk that," said Piper. "You nearly died last time."

Everyone nodded their agreement. There had to be a different way.

"Well," said Jason. "Who could this place possibly belong to? My guess is it's Luke, since someone planted a bomb and killed Mr. Wilson. The train cabins were also riddled with bullet holes, which means someone had a gun and was planning to use it. A normal person wouldn't do that. It has to be Luke, guys. Who else could it be?"

"We were supposed to be going to a place the FBI said they had prepared for us, right?" I said, "So what if it's actually the FBI, but they thought we were someone else?"

"Percy," said Annabeth, "the FBI wouldn't shoot the head of the CIA. I think Jason's right. We must have taken a wrong turn or something."

"Then if it's really Luke," I said, "there has to be a way out of here. I think we all know by now that Luke doesn't initiate any plans without at least five backup plans, which all have their own backup plans."

"Um...guys," said Thalia. "Look." She pointed to the remaining steel wall, which had started making creaking noises. Slowly, it lifted up, until it disappeared into the ceiling. An opening stood before us.

"It's a trap," said Annabeth, echoing all of our thoughts. "It's definitely a trap. But we have to go in."

We all followed Annabeth deeper into the tunnel. My heart pounded incessantly. This was the stupidest thing I'd ever done. I knew I wasn't the only one thinking that, because I could hear Leo muttering under his breath.

"That's another thing I can cross off my bucket list," he said. "Walking straight into the lair of an evil genius."

 **(Third Person POV)**

Luke decided what he had to do. He went over to the control room and pressed the button that would lift the steel walls. It would be even more suspicious to the police if they saw a pile of rubble trapped in between gigantic steel walls. If they only saw the remains of the train, they might not investigate further into the tunnel.

Then Luke turned on the intercom and spoke into it.

"Attention," he said. "I need everyone to report to Launching Pad 17 immediately."

When he got there, he did a quick number count and found that everyone was there. Luke loaded them all onto two huge helicopters and instructed the pilots where to fly. He would send them to the island of Ogygia, where his secondary headquarters were located.

Luke watched the helicopters take off and, after they left his line of vision, he returned to the control room. He took his laptop and notebook, where most of his plans lay, and stashed them inside his backpack. Then he went over to the wall opposite the doorway and kicked a certain spot. When a tiny screen made of bulletproof glass came up, he scanned his fingerprint. The screen slid away to reveal another screen, where he typed in a thirteen-character password. Then the last screen came into view. Luke typed the number "14" into it and watched as a timer started counting down from fourteen minutes.

Luke hurried back to the launch pad, where he started up the last helicopter and, getting into the pilot's seat, lifted off and flew in the direction of Ogygia.

This was his plan of last resort. Half of his work would be erased, but it was better than having the police discover it. Luke checked his watch. 9 minutes and 45 seconds left on the timer.

* * *

"I see light," said Annabeth, who was at the front of the group. They all could, indeed, sense the darkness lifting. The group followed the light, ignoring the danger they were in. They tried not to think about it, but it hung over them like a dark cloud.

"Look down," said Piper.

Everyone looked down, and saw they were not standing on tracks anymore. Instead, they were on a cement floor. It was light enough to be able to see their surroundings. The walls expanded and were no longer curved like the tunnel's. It seemed like they were in a building made solely of cement.

As they kept walking, they saw a cement wall in front of them. It was a dead end.

"There's nothing here," Leo pointed out. "Just a random cement hallway that ends in a cement wall."

Annabeth kept walking, straight toward the wall. She kicked it hard, and her foot passed right through.

"It's styrofoam," she said. "Painted styrofoam."

The group pounded at the fake wall until there was a hole big enough to walk through. When they went through it, they entered another hallway that ended in a door.

Thalia went right up to it and, despite the protests of the others, opened it. There was only a room with a thick rug and a table, nothing else.

"I've seen something like this before," said Jason. "Luke uses secret mechanisms to open passageways. There must be something like that in here. Everyone search the walls for a hollow spot."

"I have a better idea," said Percy, who had lifted up the rug. "Let's go through this trap door instead."

There was, indeed, an ill-disguised door under the rug. Leo went in through it first.

"Woah," he said. He was in a room filled with computers and screens. There were buttons and levers and random electronics lying everywhere, and there was a doorway that opened into another hallway. But the thing that caught Leo's eye first was the open slot on the wall opposite that doorway that displayed a screen with a timer. It was counting down from 36 seconds. He watched it until it got to 30. Then it started making a ticking sound.

Leo knew exactly what it was, and so did the entire group, who had by then gotten through the trap door. The sound was all too familiar - they had heard it barely an hour before.

Then Leo noticed something. With a strange look on his face, he walked over to the screen and clicked a small wheel in the corner. A list of options cascaded down the screen. They said:

"Add time"

"Subtract time"

"Pause"

Leo clicked Pause. The timer stopped counting, and the ticking went away. He took a hammer, which he always had with him, out of his pocket and smashed the screen. Behind it, he found a tangle of wires. He began to hammer at the wall, which was surprisingly weak. The wires extended along the length of the wall.

"What is it?" asked Annabeth.

"A time bomb," Leo said. "See how these wires run along the wall? I'm guessing they extend through all the walls, which are weak. That would make it easier for a bomb to burst through them. Whoever set this bomb was trying to blow up the entire place. All I can say is, thank goodness this bomb had a pause button, or we'd all be dead."

* * *

Luke looked at his watch again. Fourteen minutes had ended, and Headquarters should be nonexistent by now. The police wouldn't get their hands on his information. He was finally able to relax a little.

 **A/N: Hey guys! I realized that some of the formatting got messed up last chapter, sorry about that, and sorry if there's formatting errors in this one too. Anyway, thank you so much for reading and I'm sorry for the slow updateee**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

 **(Thalia's POV)**

After defusing - or should I say _breaking_ \- the bomb, Leo had a heyday running around the building and digging up Luke's secret work. Everyone else tried to help, of course, but at the end of the day, it was Leo whose natural hyperactivity benefited us the most. He had managed to find an entire room half-full of cardboard boxes, which in turn were full of paper and classified documents. There was even a small stash of flash drives - which lit up Annabeth's eyes when she saw it - because apparently she's really good with computers. Then again, that didn't surprise me, because Annabeth is really good at everything.

After we scoured the entire place and decided that, if there _was_ anything left, we wouldn't find it, we tried to decide what we would do with everything we found. The flash drives were easy to take - mountains of paper, not so much.

"Why can't we just get the police?" Percy asked. "They're on our side, right? They can figure out what to do with this stuff and help us figure out what's going on?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Annabeth said grimly. "That might have been an option but, as far as I'm concerned, the police don't know who we really are. All of that data was probably stored on the computers back at Headquarters, but now those computers have all been erased. So, if the police come here now, the only thing they're going to find is a bunch of people without an identity, surrounded by piles of stolen information, and the dead, bullet-riddled body of the Director of the CIA."

"In that case," said Leo, "Why don't we get out of here? I'm not going to wait to be arrested and charged with murder. Let's just take as much as we can and leave."

It wasn't the best plan, but it was the only plan. Annabeth stuffed the flash drives into her pockets and we decided that taking the papers would only be an obstacle, so we left them there, hoping that the flash drives contained enough information to piece things together. And from there, we retraced our steps and ran.

* * *

It was only after meeting the other agents outside that we realized we had nowhere to run _to_. We knew that we were going somewhere that the FBI had designated for us, but we don't know where that was. Even Annabeth, who knows everything, didn't have a clue.

Soon we could hear the police sirens. We knew that a group as large as we were would naturally attract stares, but we couldn't afford that happening with the police, so we split up and agreed to meet at a rendezvous point twenty minutes later. In the meantime, I tried to act as normal as possible - I couldn't possibly have forgotten everything I knew about being normal after working at the CIA for mere days, right? But I sighed inwardly, because the truth is, I was never normal.

 _-Flashback-_

My earliest memory was of me, as a toddler, probably four or five years old. My friend's mom had brought me home that day, and I was bursting out of my seat with excitement the whole car ride. I couldn't wait to show my mom what I had done in school. I looked at my card with a painting of a bumblebee and beamed proudly at it - my teacher had helped me choose the colors and spell "Happy Birthday."

When I finally got home, I ran through the house without taking off my coat.

"Happy Birthday, mommy!" I shouted, holding up the card to her and to show her the bumblebee.

My mom didn't even turn around. She was doing her makeup and preparing for a date with some rich man. "Not now, Thalia," she said impatiently. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

I remember moving closer and putting the card in her hand, which caused her to lose her concentration and mess up her makeup.

"Thalia! I said _not now_! Now look what you've done!" she exclaimed as she flung the card away and looked irritably at her uneven eyeliner. Then she noticed that the paint from my card, which had not completely dried yet, had gotten onto her newly-painted nails.

I saw her anger boiling up and started crying. "I'm sorry mommy!" I cried. "I didn't mean to d-"

"Out! Get out!" she yelled, shoving me out the door and slamming it shut.

I ran to my room and cried myself to sleep. My brother Jason came in and stayed with me until the next morning. He was the only person in my life who actually cared about me. And when, a few years later, he went away to live with his friend so he could be closer to his school, I was alone with my mother.

A few weeks after that, I ran away.

* * *

I spent the next five years of my life living on the streets. I managed to get through school without raising anyone's suspicions, because my parents had never been there for me even before I ran away. It was tough, living in the shadows like that, but I learned quickly. By the age of 10, I could disguise a knife better than anyone I knew, and by 11 I was able to knock out a team of teenagers bullying their classmate.

Then, when I turned 16, I remembered going back to my makeshift-bed in an alley when a something hit my head and knocked me unconscious. Next thing I knew, I was in cement room -

- _End flashback-_

"Stop staring at the ground. You look suspicious," Jason whispered, nudging me and startling me out of my thoughts.

I looked around and saw the others. We had reached the rendezvous point, and Annabeth had decided that we should walk to FBI Headquarters and try to get a meeting with the Director to tell him what happened.

 **(Third Person POV)**

Luke had been checking the news for thirty minutes now, but he had seen nothing talking about a massive explosion in Washington, DC. He began to wonder if the bomb had not gone off, and if the system had failed. That would be bad. He couldn't afford to let the police know about him.

Then, a "Breaking News" banner flashed across the TV. A reporter came on and started talking about how a badly burned body had been found in a pile of rubble that was once a train. A live video feed of the location began playing on the screen, and Luke's heart rate skyrocketed, for the first time in his life. He had failed to destroy the evidence, and now they would find him. His meticulously crafted plan - his entire life - was falling apart around him before he even had time to see its conclusion.

* * *

Over the next few days, police discovered the identity of the body - the Director of the CIA. This spearheaded a massive investigation, and it was not long before the tons of papers Luke had left behind were discovered. It seemed that there was something extremely nefarious going on, and people began blaming the Director's assassination and the discovery of stolen, classified information on anyone even remotely connected to the organization. It was decided that anyone who could have gotten so close to this information must have had the trust of the CIA.

It did not seem that anyone was making any progress, but this did not ease Luke's worries. As hard as he had tried to leave no trail of himself, he knew there were people who were after him. He knew there were people who knew he was behind the events of recent days, and he knew that the leader of these people had managed to find him. What he did not know, and what haunted him the most, was if the others would be able to.


End file.
